Lifes True Treasures
by Princess of Thieves 17
Summary: Her innocence destroyed, Kagome swore that she would never trust a man again. But when things take a turn for the worst, she has little choice but to make a pact with the devil. Kouga can't escape the legacy of his werewolf father, and is forced to surviv
1. Prolouge

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha -.-'and I never will.

A/N: Hey everybody it's me Ookamihimeko, now Princess of Thieves 15. It's nice to be back with a brand new fanfic whoohoo! I'm sorry for the long update on all the other fanfics but I can't help but want to write this one. . This story takes place in the south around about the year of umm…1866-1881. I did some research about what it was like back then and it helped me a lot. It takes place from Texas to Arizona and Louisiana and all those other good places. Well hope you like it enjoy!

_**PROLOGUE**_

The old drunk, Hige, was the one who came to tell Kouga his mother was dead.

Others would have known earlier, of course- the madam of the brothel, Kurai's fellow soiled doves… and any number of clients, respectable and less so, who frequented the Rose of Texas. Gossip traveled fast in a whorehouse.

None of them bothered to pass the tragic news to Kurai's only son. Hige came not because he gave a damn about Kouga, but because carrying the story made him feel important. More important then a worthless, troublemaking sixteen-year- old tramp.

Kouga, standing in the dusty street in front of Hat Rock's pathetic excuse for a bank, heard Hige slurred speech without emotion. He learned to hide his feelings early on, when he figured out that Ma couldn't be trusted from one moment to the next.

Sometimes she cuddled him and called him "my son," but more often she cursed him as the bane of her life, the burden who had ruined her for the better things she deserved.

Kouga clenched his fist and walked out of the cloud of Hige's whiskey-soaked breath. He strolled down the center of Main Street, making the carriages and buckboards and horsemen go around him.

Ma was dead. She'd been going at it a ling time, riddled with some kind of wasting disease. But she'd kept working, even when only the lowest clients would take her.

And Kouga had visited the Rose every day to see if she needed anything from her only kin, if she would accept a little of the money he earned or stole in every petty way he had learned in his years on the street.

On his last visit she'd spat at him. He'd wiped the spittle from his cheek and left, though Madam Rose had tried to bribe him into a hot meal and a free ride after.

He'd sworn he wouldn't go back. He'd planned to break his oath this afternoon. He could have said goodbye.

She could have said she loved him.

He laughed, startling some fine lady's skittish horse. Her male escort, a rich rancher decked out like a pimp, spurred his long-legged eastern gelding in front of Kouga and slashed the air with his quirt.

"Get out of the street, you savage," he snarled. Kouga tilted the brim of his ragged hat and looked the man in the eye. The man yanked on the reins. "Filthy beggar," he muttered. "No better than a-"

His horse squealed as a length of heavy rawhide rope slapped down on the animal's well-bred rump. The beast took off like a shot, and the lady's mount plunged after it.

Bankotsu laughed the way he always did, loud and long. He beat the rawhide against his palm. "Baka," he scoffed. "Thinks he's too good for the like of us."

His glance pulled Kouga in like a brother's embrace. Besides Ma, he was the closest thing to real kin Kouga had. Except Ma had known she was dying and finally told Kouga that he had a pa. One even more important than Bankotsu's.

Bankotsu stopped laughing and gave Kouga a hard stare. "What's wrong with you? Been eatin' leftovers out of Mow bray's rubbish heap again?"

Kouga averted his face and headed for the nearest alley. He had a lump in his throat, and he was afraid he might start bawling. Bad enough to do it in front of Bankotsu, but if anyone else saw…

Bankotsu gripped his arm. "It's the bitch, ain't it? What'd she do to you this time?"

"Nothing." Kouga yanked free and stride deep into the alley, where the shadows made him feel safe.

Bankotsu knocked Kouga's hat off his head. "Liar." He squinted in his face. "Your eyes are still red. She hit you?" Kouga shook his head and snatched at his hat. Bankotsu held it just out of his reach.

"I know damned well you'd never hit her back, no matter how much she deserves it." Kouga's heart balled up into a painful knot. "She don't deserve nothing anymore," he said. "She's dead."

Bankotsu whistled. "Damn." He set Kouga's hat back on his head and gently presses it in place. "Who told you?"

"Hige."

"Figures." bankotsu leaned on the wall and vent one knee, wedging his boot heel against the clapboard. "She didn't leave you anything, did she?"

Trust Bankotsu to ask that first. He was the one who usually planned their petty thieveries and moneymaking schemes; there was always some little trinket he coveted, some luxury he just had to have, and his father damned sure wouldn't give him the cash.

Marshall Bon'ryu was as tightfisted as they came, at least with his own family. The whole town knew that Lady Bon'ryu and her son lived like the poorest people folk, while the Marshall spent what he earned on himself and the pretty mistresses he kept in a house at the edge of town.

Sometimes Kouga wondered if he was better off than Bankotsu. At least Kurai's hadn't lectured him about the devil and hell-fire all day and night like Lady Bon'ryu. Kouga didn't have his friend's big dreams for the future, so he wasn't disappointed.

The only thing he had really wanted was forever beyond his reach. Unless he could find his father.

"You better get back to the Rose and make sure your Ma didn't leave anything, or one of the other girls'll steal it for sure," Bankotsu said, kicking the wall. "You have the right to take whatever she had."

A few rages of clothes too big for a wasted body, paint to hide sunken cheeks a handful of cheap costume jewelry. Kouga wanted none of it.

But he would go anyways, to make sure Ma had a decent burial. If she hadn't saved enough, he would find the money somewhere.

His nose stated to run from the effort of holding back the tears. He pulled out a handkerchief with the uneven initials stitched into the threadbare line-K.H.L. Kouga Huan Lang . Ma had sewn the cloth for him two Christmases ago, when she was feeling uncommonly charitable.

(Huan Lang-phantom wolf)

He shoved the handkerchief back in his pants. Ma was better off dead than suffering. He'd wished her gone often enough. Hated her more than half the time. Hated what she was and what she could never be.

"Hey." Bankotsu said. "I'll make sure you get what's coming to you, don't worry. The ladies know me." He slapped Kouga's shoulder.

"Now you don't have her to drag you down, you're free. You can so all that stuff we talked about."

"Finding lost mines and buried treasure?" Kouga said. The words cracked shamefully. "Hell, that's only the beginning. We'll both be rich before we hit twenty. I swear to you, brother, they'll all remember our names."

Bankotsu would make sure they remembered his name. If he couldn't force his father to pay attention to his misdemeanors around town- broken windows and pilfered store goods, mischief grudgingly permitted the Marshall's son-then he would find some other way of getting the kind of life he wanted.

He would never be like his ma, trying to ignore humiliation and poverty by believing worldly goods were the paving stones to hell.

No, Bankotsu would take everything he could borrow or steal, and he'd never look back.

"C'mon," Bankotsu said, pulling and Kouga's faded flannel shirt. "Let's go put the old bitch in her grave."

Kouga stiffened. "Don't," he said softly. "Don't call her that again, Bankotsu." "Or what?" Bankotsu laughed. "You remember when we met? You were bawling behind the livery stable because your ma beat you and called you her ruination. She said she'd wished she'd gotten rid of you before you were born."

"You'd think I don't remember?"

"I cried once, when I was six and Ma took a belt to my back to whup the demons out of me. I used it all up then. You still have a little left in you, Kouga. Get rid of it. Now the wars over, there's fortunes to be made in New Mexico and Arizona Territory. We got to find them lost Yokai mines and Shikon jewels before someone beats us to it." He slapped Kouga's shoulder.

"We're getting the hell out of this town, and we ain't coming back."

"There's something I got to do first."

"Go find your daddy?"

Kouga acted without thinking, seizing the front of Bankotsu shirt. "What do you know about him?"

"I told you, the ladies like me." Bankotsu shrugged him off. "Kiba Tasuki. One of the richest cattleman in Palo Pinto County. I'm sure he's just rarin' to acknowledge his long lost bastard son- if you really are his son."

Kouga backed away, striking the wall behind him instead of hitting Bankotsu. "Ma told me to find him. It was one of the last things she said to me. She wouldn't have lied."

"Then go. I ain't gunna stop you. Maybe I'll even wait around 'til you get some sense knocked into that hard head of yours."

"Don't do me any favors."

"Hey." Bankotsu grabbed him behind the neck and shook him like a newborn pup. He turned up Kouga's palm to display the lumpy scar made six years ago with a dull knife and an oath meant to last eternity.

"We're blood brothers. Nothing can change that. So you do what you gotta do, and then we'll light out this town so fast even the dust'll catch fire."

Kouga almost smiled. Bankotsu was good at painting pictures with his words, making Kouga believed anything was possible. Even a whore's son becoming one of the great Tasukis'.

"I gotta go," Kouga said. "If I don't come back, you'll know my pa took me in."

"Or you're dead," Bankotsu said, only half joking. "If they kill you, I'll avenge you right proper, don't worry about that."

Kouga pulled his hat brim lower over his eyes. "Why would they want to kill me?" But Bankotsu didn't have to answer. The Tasukis' were rich. And also ruthless in protection their property and their name.

Kiba Tasuki had never come to see Kurai after Kouga was born. He could snuff out an inconvenient trespasser without attraction the slightest notice from anyone purporting to uphold the law.

Deliberately Kouga rolled a cigarette, taking special care with the precious tobacco. Bankotsu lit it for him and rolled his own.

They smoked together in silence. Kouga crushed the butt under his boot and set off for the undertaker's. Bankotsu went his own way, but Kouga knew all he had to do was whistle and Bankotsu would be there, right at his side.

If Kiba Tasuki accepted his bastard son, Kouga would try to bring Bankotsu in with him. Kouga had never believed in fate, but he knew there were only two ways his life could go.

If he didn't find a place with his father's family, Bankotsu would set the course for the both of them.

Kouga shivered in the afternoon heat and almost crossed himself the way his mother taught him when he was very young. He didn't think there were saints or angels in heaven who listened to the prayers of people like him.

He wouldn't try to pray for himself.

But there was no one else to pray for her, and so he would go to church and light a candle and pretend someone could hear him.

"Hey, kid!" Hige shouted from the boardwalk of the Cock 'n' Bull Saloon across the street. "She used to be a good lay, your mama." He lifted the bottle in his hand.

"Here's to all the whores in Texas. May they never-"

He broke off as Kouga turned on his heel and strode toward the saloon. His hand slapped at his hip for the gun that wasn't there, but his expression was weapon enough. Hige squealed and stumbled through the swinging doors.

Kouga's fingers curled around the invisible butt of his imaginary pistol. He couldn't afford a gun. Bankotsu said he had something about him that worked just as well as a loaded six-shooter for scaring people off-when he chose to use it.

He went to the undertaker's and found that his mother's "friends" at the Rose had paid for her coffin and burial. He didn't go to the whorehouse.

He had Kurai's handkerchief, and that was the only memory of her he wanted to keep.

The next morning he set out for the Tasukis' spread, perched on a ewe-necked bit of crow bait Yoshitomo Yuki had lent him in exchange for two days' work mucking out the livery stable stalls.

The horse returned to town before he did. The doctor pronounced it a true miracle that Kouga survived the beating, let alone made it back to Hat Rock on foot.

When Kouga recovered enough to ride, he and Bankotsu stole horses and gear from the livery stable and rode out of Hat Rock so fast that the dust caught fire.

Kouga laughed until even the wind was sated with his tears.

_Princess of Thieves 15:_ (wipes sweat from brow) Phew! That was a pretty long prologue if you ask me. I hoped everybody liked it. Yes, it's weird having Kouga and Bankotsu together in fanfictions, I can't even remember if they ever met eachother. PLEASE REVIEW! NO FLAMES PLEASE! Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but be gentle (lol) Hope everyone liked it. See you in chapter 2. .


	2. Take it, or Leave it

Disclaimer: If I had a dollar every time I wrote this, I _would _ownInuYasha…but I don't.

A/N: If you haven't already noticed I've changed my penname. Why? You might ask. Well the reason is still unknown to me too, but there's nothing wrong with a little change is there? But I will always be Ookamehimeko, sevey!

_**TAKE IT, OR LEAVE IT**_

Kagome hated Tombstone. She hated its dusty streets lined with saloons and brothels, its crowds of miners and gamblers and cowboys out for a little "fun," its almost frantic attempts at respectability.

Tombstone reminded Kagome of herself. She was as dusty as its streets, as false as the bright facades that lured the naïve and reckless into the gambling halls, where fortunes were lost and won every hour of the day and night.

She blended right in with the more ordinary class of men, and that was exactly the way she wanted it. No one looked twice at a figure clad in baggy wool trousers and loses flannel shirt, or a face smudged with dirt under a sweat-stained hat.

Sango, with her tan skin and simple cotton dress, attracted scarcely more attention, but that wasn't the problem for Sesshomaru, his was the exact opposite.

People of all races came to the mines or passed through the deserts and mountains of southern Arizona. Tombstone was no longer the mining camp of a few years past but a fully incorporated city of seven thousand souls, with five newspapers, its own railroad depot and a telegraph.

There was a whole new world to be won here, a new life to be made by those willing to work- or risk everything for luck.

Kagome was willing to work, but luck was definitely not going in her favor. She dodged a heavy wagon loaded with limber for some new constriction at the corner of Second and Fremont streets.

The smell of cheap perfume drifted from the nearest cathouse, temporarily overwhelming the stench of horse droppings, whiskey and unwashed clothing.

If Souta was here, it might take her days to find him. But Kagome didn't know where else to look. Her brother had made arrangements to buy fifty yearlings and two-year-old heifers from a rancher in northern Sulpher Spring Valley, but he should have been back at Calico Creek a week ago.

She'd sent Miroku after him at the end of the first week, and now her foreman was missing as well.

God knew the ranch couldn't afford to lose any hands in the middle of calving season, even if rustlers had run off with half their stock last winter.

InuYasha and Kohaku would make do as vest they could, but a young man and a 13-year old boy didn't have the time or strength to handle all that needed to be done.

There was a chance that Souta had met with some mishap. Apache renegades raided American settlements from time to time, and Arizona was an outlaws' haven.

But Kagome didn't believe Souta had run into that kind of trouble. Far more likely that he'd become distracted by the gambling halls and carnal temptations of Tombstone.

Kagome sighed and surreptitiously pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, wiping the dust from her mouth.

Sango, whom Kagome wouldn't think of sending into the saloons, was off buying supplies in the dry goods store while Sesshomaru investigated the establishments that catered to the Indian traders and miners.

That left Kagome with dozens of saloons and bordellos to visit. She dreaded the brothels most of all.

For that reason as much as any other, she chose Hafford's Saloon, known for the hundreds of exotic birds painted on its walls rather than for its soiled doves.

She waked up to the polishes bar and leaned against it like any one of the men.

"What'll you have?" the bartender asked.

Kagome considered her limited supply of coins and ordered the smallest drink she could get away with. "Maybe you can help me," she said as the barman slapped the shot of whiskey on the counter before her.

"I'm looking for my brother- Souta Higarashi. Black hair, brown eyes, a few inches taller than me. Have you seen him?"

The bartender looked askance under his bushy gray browns. "You just described 'bout a hundred men who passed through here the past couple of days. I can't remember them all of 'em."

"Then perhaps you've seen a tall man, black hair…"

"Not as I recall." He scratched his unkempt beard. "Might ask the faro dealer. He always remembers a face."

Kagome hid her disgust and downed the whiskey. It would affect her little, buy not too much. She'd learned to hold her liquor those few years in New Orleans.

"Listen, boy," the bartender said with a confidential air of one dong a great good service, "I'd hold off that stuff if I was you. Wait until you're a mite older. And stay out of Big Nose Kate's!" He laughed uproariously at his "joke" and slapped the counter so hard the Kagome empty glass bounced.

A shadow fell over Kagome and the bartender. The newcomer seemed very tall in comparison to the stout barkeep- lean and taut with muscle, dressed in the wool pants and coat of a cowman rather than the duds of a miner.

His black hat shaded his face, but something in his manner, the way he cocked a hip against the bar and dominated the space around him, alerted Kagome's instinct for danger.

She paid for her drink and turned to go.

"Hey," the bartender said, grabbing her shirtsleeve. "What name should I give if your brother comes looking for you?"

"Hojo," she said, keeping her voice low. "Hojo Higarashi."

"Good luck."

Kagome tipped her hat, but he was already serving the tall newcomer. The skin between Kagome's shoulders blades quivered.

She walked quickly to the gambling tables and searched out the faro dealer. He looked like a panther abut to pounce as she approached, buy he was pleasant enough when she explained her mission.

A few of the gamblers took pity on the boy and speculated among themselves as the dealer laid the cards on the table.

"I think I seen him," a miner offered. "About so high, short black hair? Saw him at the roulette wheel over at the Crystal Palace, oh, near ten days ago. You say he's your brother?"

Kagome nodded, her heart sinking to the soled of her boots. "Don't think he did to good. Lost a heap o' money. Heard him talk about buying gear and heading into the Chiricahuas to make his fortune." The miner chuckled.

"Poor feller. Looked liked he might know something about beeves, but mining…" He shook his head. "Id ask over at the harness shops and livery stables. He'd 'a needed a couple good mules, at the very least."

Kagome thanked the miner and trudged out of the saloon. Souta must have gone crazy. He knew that money has to go for cattle or the ranch could fail.

And he knew less about mining than she did. If he really had gone to the mountains, it was probably because he was too ashamed to face her and had thought up some cockeyed scheme to recoup his losses.

No, Souta wasn't crazy, just rash and sometimes thoughtless. She had hoped this time he would prove responsible.

She needed to trust him with the money she's saved from her marriage, needed him to show that he cared as mush about Calico Creek as she did.

She'd expected too much.

Still reckless or not, Souta was her brother. He knew what she'd been, and he hadn't turned his back. He was the only family she had left.

Even if all the money was gone, she had to find him and bring him home.

Kagome began the wearisome rounds of Tombstone's numerous corrals, stables and supply stores. By late afternoon she knew that Souta had indeed bought a pair of mules and all the appropriate gear, and had set off from Tombstone over a week ago.

His likely path would take him east, toward the Chiricahuas, but well north of Calico Creek's little side valley.

Kagome mutters a curse she saved for only the worst situations and returned to the stable where she ha left the wagon and horses.

Sango and Sesshomaru were waiting for her in the shade of the building. Sesshomaru looked as though he'd eaten a sour lemon, and Sango was furiously knitting the shawl she's begun on the to Tombstone. She'd stopped when she saw Kagome.

"Bad new?' she asked softly.

"Bad enough. Souta gambled the money before he bought any cattle and went back to the mountains with mining gear."

"Impudent fool," Sesshomaru muttered

"Miroku?" Sango said.

The worry in her voice revealed far more than her dispassionate face. Kagome knew how much she cared for Miroku, and he for her. God help the man if he ever made Sango cry

"I can't find any evidence the Miroku was ever in Tombstone," Kagome said.

"He's been gone a week," Sango said, crumpling the shawl between her graceful hands.

"He may be looking for Souta in the Valley. It's a big area to cover." Kagome pushed back her hat and blotted the perspiration from her forehead.

"We can't afford a hotel tonight. We'll sleep in the wagon and decide what to do in the morning-if you don't mind bedding with the horses, Sesshomaru."

He shrugged. "Oh and here I thought I was getting lucky," he joked, trying to lighten the mode; it worked.

"What will we do tomorrow, _mademoiselle?"_

"I can find him for you."

Kagome whirled to face the man from Hafford's- the one who had made the uncharacteristic shiver race down her spine.

His back was to the sun, so she still couldn't make out his features. But his height was a dead giveaway, and his voice, deep and rough, made her think of dark alleys and smoking guns.

He was what the girls at La Belle Helen used to call a "long, tall drink of water." Kagome's mouth had suddenly gone very dry indeed.

She held her ground, staring up into the shadows of his eyes under the black hat's brim. "Who are you?"

"Someone who has what you need." He angled his head so she could see that the slitted eyes were the palest blue accenting his very dark skin from the sun and wind. His hair came to his lower back and seemed to move with the breeze. It put the darkest desert nights into shame, but shinned more than the sun.

Every single element of his face was handsome, yet the overall effect was one of compelling strength and inner power.

No women would fail to look at him twice.

"You fallowed me here," Kagome said.

"I heard you were looking for your brother," he said, glancing over her shoulder at her companions. Sesshomaru took a step forward, compelled against his violent nature to assume the role of gallant protector and not fighter. "Call your man off. I mean you no harm."

"It's all right, Sesshomaru," she said, never taking her gazed from the stranger's. "Why do you think you can help us?"

The man drew closer, crowding Kagome up against the wall of the livery. She dodged neatly, keeping her distance.

He smelled of wind and sand, as everyone did in the desert, but it was not an unpleasant odor.

In fact, he smelled different from many men she'd met. He moved easily, smoothly, like a puma or a fox.

But he didn't offer a threat, and if he wore a gun, it was well hidden under his coat.

"My name's Kouga Huan Lang," the man said. "I heard your brother ran off to the mountains after losing big at the Crystal Palace. They say he's a tenderfoot who wouldn't know a pickax from a shovel, so I figured—"

"Souta's no tenderfoot. We have a ranch on the other side of Sulphur Spring Valley. He—"She wasn't about to confess Souta's irresponsibility to this man.

"He has dreams, sometimes," she finished awkwardly. Huan Lang narrowed his eyes. "He's your older brother? Sounds like you look after him. He gambled away all your money?"

Kagome bristled. "What's you interest in my brother, Mr. Wolf?"

Kouga raised his brow at the new English translation at his name, but continued. "I was a scout for the army. I know all the ranges—the Dragoons, Chiricahuas, the Mules. Tracking's what I do. And right now I need a job."

His confession startled Kagome into silence. A man like this Kouga Huan Lang, er, Kouga Wolf wasn't the type to admit such a need any more than she was.

She examined him more closely. His clothing, though of good quality, was much worn and patched at the seams.

He'd been down on his luck for some time…of perhaps he was simply a scoundrel on the run. Surely even an outlaw wouldn't consider what they had worth stealing.

Sesshomaru appeared at her shoulder. "How do we know you are what you say you are? How do we know you are good at what you do?"

Wolf shrugged. "I'm willing to take half pay before, half after your brother's found."

"I can't pay much," Kagome said. "You'd do better to look elsewhere for employment."

"When your belly's empty," Kouga said, "even a few pesos look pretty damned good. You got supplies?"

This was moving much too fast for Kagome. She didn't trust men. That was the principle tenet of her life. "We can't be sure he went into the Chiricahuas," she said. "I sent my foreman to look for him, but he hasn't returned, either."

"Soon as I leave town, I'll be able to tell which direction your brother rode—and your range boss, too, if he was in Tombstone," Wolf said with an offhand conviction that brooked no argument.

"Your brother'll be headed east on the road to Turquoise if he's making for the Valley. You pay me two dollars now and give me directions to your ranch, and I'll deliver your brother within the next two weeks."

Kagome laughed. "Two dollars is your idea of half pay?" She turned her back on Wolf, and ice ran up and down her spine. Ice like the color of his eyes. "If I hire you, its one dollar now and the one when you bring Souta back. Alive."

Wolf also laughed, and the sound wasn't pretty. "He have a bounty on his head?"

"No. And I might as well tell you that he can't have much money left himself, so robbing him won't do you much good. As you said, he can't tell a shovel from a pickax. If he found anything worth mining, it would be a miracle."

Sesshomaru laid his hand on her arm in warning. Wolf barely shifted, but Kagome was aware of the tracker's movement as he had been the one to touch her.

"You don't think too highly of me, do you, boy?" he said with a faint smile. "What taught you to be so suspicious so damned young?"

_Life, _she wanted to answer. _And men like you._ She turned and met his cold eyes. "I don't know you," she said. "I don't know if anything you say is true. I could spend another say asking around town for references, but I don't want to lose any more time."

"I give my word that I'll so exactly as I say or forfeit the money."

His word. A man's word meant as little to her as a snap of her fingers, but Wolf's gaze held so steady that she began to believe him. Those eyes…

She shook her head to clear it. "There's only one way I'll hire you, Mr. Wolf, and that's if I go with you."

"I work alone."

She ignored him. "Sesshomaru, you take Sango back to the ranch and wait. Maybe Miroku and Souta will turn up while I'm gone."

Sesshomaru's brows furrowed above his honey eyes. "No, Kago-no, Mr. Higarashi. I will not leave you alone with this man."

"You don't think I'm afraid?" She smiled at Wolf. "What could Mr. Wolf do to me, Sessho? Steal a few dollars and my horse?"

Wolf snorted. "You ain't coming with me, boy."

"I am, or the deal's off." She pulled a coin fro her wallet and tossed it in the air, catching it with one hand. "One dollar now, one after, and I go with you. Take it or leave it."

She expected Wolf to leave it. She could see in his eyes how little he liked being ordered about, and there was a quiet menace simmering under the calm, cool air he affected. She was a little afraid. If he found out she was a woman—and he very well might, with them traveling together…

_Zut._ There wasn't a thing he could do to her that hadn't been done already. And she had her .44 hidden under her coat. She was prepared to shoot if ant man touched her against her will, and the law would be on her side once they knew she was a woman. At least as they didn't know what kind of woman.

"You drive a tough bargain, kid," Wolf said gruffly. "But I'm making one thing clear. If you can't keep up I still get my money for delivering your brother."

Kagome nodded. "I agree." She waited to see if he would offer his hand, and when he didn't', she bucked up her coat and offered hers. "My name's Hojo Higarashi."

He hesitated, and then clasped her hand hard enough to squeeze the bones. The feel of his rough skin didn't repulse her as much as she expected. She pulled her hand away, flexing her fingers behind her back, and tossed him the coin.

He caught it so fast that she didn't even see the gesture.

"We leave at dawn tomorrow," he said. "You can tell me more while we're riding."

"What about supplies?"

"I have my own. You have a bedroll and rations?"

"Enough for a few days."

"Don't bring too much. It'll weigh the horses down."

"I'll meet you at the south end of town tomorrow, Mr. Wolf. I have business of my own tonight."

His lip curled in a way that suggested he know what business she'd be about. "Don't get too worn out, kid. I ride fast and hard."

"I'm overwhelmed by your concern," she said.

He leaned close, and she noted that his breath held not even the slightest taint of alcohol. "You talk might pretty, boy. Schooled nice and proper, I'll bet. But all the fancy education in the world won't help you out here."

_You're wrong, _she thought. _There are certain kinds of education that are invaluable in a place like this. _

"Dawn. Tomorrow," she said, dismissing him. "Good nigh, Mr. Huan Lang."

He backed away, drawing his hat brim down over his eyes. A moment later he was gone. Kagome let out her breath and met Sango's gaze.

"What do you think?" she asked her friend.

"Dangerous for sure, but I think he was telling at least some of the truth." Sango looked down the street the way Wolf had gone. "You be really careful, Kagome. Real careful."

"It's not good," Sesshomaru put in.

"It has to be done. You know I won't take any chances."

"No chances," Sesshomaru grumbled. "I don't know Kagome."

"You just see that Sango gets back to Calico Creek."

"I'll pray for you and Souta," Sango said. And Miroku, but she didn't need to say it.

"Thank you, Sango." Kagome went to see the stable owner about staying the night and checked on the horses. She, Sango and Sesshomaru shared fresh bread Sango had bought at the bakery and a wedge of cheese, along with the jerky they'd brought from Calico Creek.

Sesshomaru bedded down in a pile of clean straw, while Sango and Kagome lay rolled in blankets in the wagon bed.

At cockcrow the next morning, Sesshomaru harnessed the wagon horses. He and Sango sat our on the rough fifty-mile ride home, while Kagome took Dark, her roan, and rode to the southern edge of town.

Wolf was waiting for her. He looked like Death himself, silhouetted against the lightening sky, the rolling, scrubby hills and mountains behind him.

Kagome hesitated only a moment and then urged Dark to join him.

She had a feeling that she would need every prayer Sango could send her way.

_Princess of Thieves 15:_ Ok, Chapter 1 done, so far. Now I just have to worry about Chapter 2. I have no idea what it's going to be about -.-'Hope you enjoyed. REVIEW PLEASE! .


	3. I'll Watch

Disclaimer: Don't own InuYasha, but you'll know when I do

A/N:  Ok, here I am, this is me. Here's the 2 Chapter, or really Chapter 3. I had no idea what to do so um…don't judge me, only God can do that. I just hope you like it. I think my writing has improved a bit since a while back. Well at least better than my first one, yeesh! That was a doozy (jp) ok I'll shut up now.

_**I'LL WATCH**_

Kouga watched the slender rider trot up the hill, admiring her graceful posture and firm seat.

He didn't make a habit of admiring women-with one notable exception-but he had to give this one credit for the guts to pose as a man and the skill to pull if off.

Of course _he'd _ known she was female the moment he stood beside her at Hafford's Saloon, and that was after he heard someone named Higarashi was searching for a brother called Souta.

He'd fallowed her at a distance through the streets of Tombstone, waiting for the right moment to get closer and hear the full story.

It seemed too lucky that he'd located his prey so easily, but here she was, just where Bankotsu had told him to look.

Bankotsu had mentioned that Souta had a sister who'd lived with him in Texas, but nothing Bankotsu said had suggested she was vital to Kouga mission.

What was her name…? Kagome.

A handle as fancy as her speech. He rolled the name around his tongue, liking the taste of it. Disliking the taste of the name she had given him: Hojo.

He didn't trouble himself wondering why she disguised her sex. She gave off a powerful impression of fearlessness—even he had been hard pressed to sense her unease—but she must be pretty damned afraid of something.

Afraid, and yet confident enough to keep anyone from looking too close at what lay beneath the mask.

He had a suspicion that she cleaned up a lot nicer than her outward appearance indicated.

Her features under the grime were strong but just a little too delicate for a boy, her lips full, her eyes the color of coffee lightened with fresh cream and flecked with crystals of sugar.

She must have a figure under those baggy cloths. But she was only a means to an end, unimportant to him except as a guide to Souta.

Likely she didn't know anything about the map or she would be a helluva lot more suspicious than she was.

She didn't have any ideas why Souta would have gone into the Chiricahuas outfitted for prospecting. But if Souta had told her about the treasure, Kouga would learn soon enough.

Meanwhile, he would let her keep pretending as long as it served his purpose.

He nodded to her as she drew her mount alongside Diablo. A wisp of raven hair had escaped from under her hat, the strand way longer than a boys would be. She tucked it back with a gesture both artless and impatient.

Her roan sidled, and Diablo snapped at the gelding's flank.

"Your horse has an unpleasant disposition," she remarked.

"Just like me," he said. "You ready?"

"Lead on."

He turned toward the east and broke Diablo into a gallop, racing down the slope of the dusty miner; road pointing toward the Dragoons.

Diablo had something to prove and lit full out, leaving Kagome and her gelding to choke on his dust. But she was game for his contest.

In a few minutes her roan was neck and neck with Diablo. What Kouga glimpsed of Kagome's profile was grimly unamused.

When Diablo had worked out a little of his spite, Kouga reined him in and slowed to a steady lope.

Kagome flashed him a smile edged with anger. "Trying to get rid of me already?" she said, breathing hard, "Or was that just a test?"

"That's up to you." He noticed that her hat had blown back a little ways. She caught his look and jammed it forward.

"Now tell me about your brother," he said

She blinked at his sudden change of subject. "What else do you need to know?"

"How familiar is he with the mountains?"

"Our ranch is in the foothills near the south end of the range, in Calico Creek Valley, between the Chiricahuas and the Liebres."

Which meant she and her bother were squatters on land they hoped to claim once the southern Sulphur Spring Valley was surveyed and opened for homesteading under the U.S. land laws.

Until they could claim it legally, they had to hold their spread against all comers, including the rustlers who swarmed over the Valley like lice in a miner's beard.

Kouga respected for Kagome's increase.

"This is the first time your brother had shown any interest in looking for one?" he asked. "When we lived in Texas, he spoke of getting rich in Arizona Territory. I never—"She paused, darting Kouga a wary glance.

"I said he was a dreamer."

"And apt to go off half-cocked."

Her lips set in a straight line. "He's older."

"You ain't?"

She shrugged

"What was he dong in Tombstone?"

"I don't know. He was supposed to be in the Valley, buying stock for the ranch."

"Doesn't sound like you should have trusted him."

She shot him a clod look. "You're not here to judge Souta, Mr. Wolf, only to find him."

Kouga scratched the day's growth of new beard on his chin. Kagome was defensive about her brother but still naïve enough to laws a stranger right to him.

She honestly didn't believe Souta had anything worth stealing. She valued him more highly than he deserved, and Kouga couldn't figure out why.

"Your brother's a drinking man," he said.

"Isn't everyone?"

The disdain in her voice almost gave her away. "You talk like an abstainer," he said. "But I saw you take a drink in Hafford's."

"I think better when I'm sober."

"So do I. But from what they say in Tombstone, your brother talks when he drinks. That ain't a wise habit in this country. It's a good thing he doesn't have anything to hide…except you," he whispered, the last couple words.

"He was ashamed to come home without the money. That's all."

"You sure he planned to come back?"

"I'm sure." But her voice has a little crack in it. She wasn't nearly as sure about anything as she let on. She would ride her heart out to prove herself Kouga's equal, but under that tough skin was a weakness he intended t exploit.

He wondered how she would handle their first night together. They would have to make at least one camp between here and the Chiricahuas foothills.

"What about this foreman of yours? He any good as a tracker?"

"Miroku was with the Tenth Cavalry, so he has the skill for it. He may very well still be looking in the Valley."

"But you want me to concentrate on your brother."

"Miroku can take care of himself."

Which meant Souta couldn't. That fit with everything Kouga had heard so far.

Once they were far away from the overwhelming scents of Tombstone, Kouga dismounted. "You got anything on you that belongs to your brother?" he asked.

She stared down at him, perplexed. "No. Why?"

"Never mind." Kouga knelt close to the earth. A hundreds horses, mules, oxen and men on foot had passed this way. He located a pair of mule's prints accompanied by the boot marks of a single man.

Kouga gathers a pinch of dust and held in to his nostrils. The dirt was infused with a faint but distinct scent that linked this traveler with the woman riding beside him.

"What are you looking for?" Kagome asked.

He didn't bother giving her an answer she wouldn't understand. "Your bother came this way," he said, mounting again. "He probably passed through Turquoise. We'll stop there next."

He rode a little ahead of Kagome to get her smell out of his nose. The ground began to rise, and the trail turned south to loop around the tail end of the Dragoons.

Seventeen miles without shade on a road with so many twists, hills and dips was hardly a pleasant jaunt, especially in the growing heat of the day, but Kagome didn't complain.

She drank sparingly from her canteen like an experiences desert traveler. Even Kouga was glad to catch sight of the Chiricahuas when the finally reached Turquoise.

He knew that Indians had once dug the bright blue rock out of these mountains, but white men were far more interested in the lead, silver and copper they'd found a few years back.

The hills were scarred with recent excavation and the discarded trash of human activity. The camp itself was no more than a series of tumbledown shacks, sufficient for the bachelor miners' stark way of life.

One of the shacks was a makeshift saloon of sorts, indicated by the crudely drawn sketch of a bottle eon the door. Kouga tied his horse to the hitching post and went inside.

The proprietress was a blowsy woman of early middle age and probably the only female within a ten mile radius—possibly the wife of one of the miners, more likely a willing companion to any who could pay.

Her establishment was empty of clients. Flies buzzed lazily near the warped tin ceiling. Kouga dropped a coin on the long, poorly fashioned table that served as a bar.

"How's business?" he asked.

The woman, whose rouged cheeks were the only bit of color in a face hard and gray as granite, looked him up and down.

"Maybe better than it was," she said. She put a shot glass of whiskey down in front of him. The door creaked behind Kouga, and Kagome walked in.

"You boys lookin' to stake a claim? Ready Mary can help you get started, get you everything you need. Even a little fun." She leered at Kouga, and he shoved the whiskey back at her.

She drank it herself. "No you aint no miner. On your way to more important business, I'd say."

She winked at Kagome over Kouga's shoulder. "Now _he_ don't look as if he's done much riding at all. I'll give you a good price, cowboy. And half of that for his turn in the saddle." She laughed hoarsely until she realized that Kouga wasn't smiling.

Kouga glances back at Kagome. It was difficult to tell if she was blushing under the dust and the tan, buy he couldn't mistake the pity in her eyes.

Pity for this dries-up husk of a female, who was probably stuck out here because she couldn't compete with the younger whores in Tombstone.

"We're looking for someone," Kagome said before Kouga could reply. "Maybe he passed this way." She described her brother as she had before, but she wouldn't meet the older woman's avaricious gaze.

"Yeah, I saw someone fitting that description," Ready Mary said, leaning forward to display the sagging bounty of her bosom.

"Did he say anything?" Kouga asked, ignoring the view she offered.

"Well, that depends. He did a bit of drinking—not that he looked liked he'd gone thirsty too long,"

she wiped out the glass with a dirty towel and hummed under her breath. Kouga plopped down another coin. "What did he say?"

Ready Mary battered her eyelashes. "Well, it was some days back, and my place was crowded—when the miners come down they need their entertainment…"

Kouga slapped his palm on the table. The woman jumped and nearly dropped the glass. She glanced at Kouga's eyes.

"Well he…he wasn't making much sense. He was talking about someplace called Hakurei Canyon, on the west side of the Cherrycows. He was all outfitted up, but everyone knows there ain't no mines there."

"Hakurei Canyon?" Kouga repeated, holding her with his stare.

"Y-yes." She swallowed, and the sagging flesh of her neck quivered. "What did he do to you, mister?"

"He's my brother," Kagome said, grabbing Kouga's arm. "Come on, Wolf."

Kouga let himself be led more out of shock than cooperation. Once outside the saloon he pried her fingers from his arm and led his horse to the nearest trough, clearing away the scum with a sweep of his hand.

Kagome's horse dipped his nose in the opposite end of the trough, wary of Diablo.

"Never do that again," Kouga said quietly.

"What?"

"Touch me like that. Drag me around."

"You didn't have to threaten that woman."

"That whore? She would've robbed you blind if she could."

He pulled Diablo away from the water. "What made you think I was threatening her?"

Kagome stroked the horse's neck. "Not with words. But she was terrified of you." Kagome glanced at him sideways. "The way you looked at her…Do you dislike all women, or just a particular type?"

Kouga snickered. "What'd you know about women, boy?"

Kagome tightened the gelding's cinch and mounted. "I had a mother," she said softly. "I'll ask you to behave with courtesy and decency as long as you're in my employ. Even to whores."

Kouga swung up to Diablo's back. So she expected decency, did she? Was the tough, capable shell front as false as her male disguise? Let her put on some fancy frock and she'd probably want him to bow and scrape like some dandy from the east.

She would get quite a shock when she realized he saw right through her. He was looking forward to that moment.

"I thought you said you lived in Texas," he said.

"Is that important?"

"Most Texans I know ain't quite so delicate in their ways. But then, you had an _education."_

She chose to disregard his mockery. "You were born in Texas yourself, weren't you?"

"You wouldn't know the town. Whereabouts did you live?"

Immediately she became guarded. "We had a place in Palo Duro country."

She clearly didn't wasn't to continue on that subject. Kouga whistled a few introductory noted and then began to sing.

"Well I come from Alabamy with my banjo on my knee, I'm goin' t Lou'siana, my true love to see." He grinned at Kagome's dubious expression. "Lou'siana."

"What?"

"That's where you were born."

She frowned. "You hear it in my speech."

"Like I said, I've been all over."

She considered that with a thoughtful tilt of her head. "You are too young to have fought in the war."

"So're you."

"I saw what it did to people on both sides."

"Is that why you left Texas?"

"My brother saw promise in this country," she said. "He imagined what is could become."

A dreamer, just like Bankotsu. Looking for something he couldn't see with his eyes, never content with what he had right in front of him. Always wanting more.

_And exactly how are you different from either of them?_

Kouga spurred ahead. Kagome caught up, and they left Turquoise and the Dragoons behind them. To the east rose the Chiricahuas, a range of peaks extending north to south across the almost unbroken for over twenty miles, but Hakurei Canyon was nearly another twenty miles north once they'd crossed the plain.

Kouga didn't intend to push the horses too hard when they'd soon be facing much harsher terrain in the mountains.

Grass grew high where water collected in the draw down the center of the valley. A few hardy ranchers squatted on the richest land beside springs and creeks.

Kouga knew that the infamous Tasuki gang had their own spread near Soldier's Hole, but he and Kagome had no cause to pass they way.

"We'll make camp at Squaretop Hills," he said, indicating the cluster of buttes rising up from the valley some fifteen miles to the northeast. "There should be water there for the horses."

He watched Kagome carefully, nothing the slight stiffing of her shoulders and the jut of her chin. She didn't suggest that they stop at one of the squatter's holdings or the few more established ranched between here in the mountains.

"Do you know Hakurei Canyon?" she asked.

"I know where it is," he said. "It's long and deep, cuts tight into the high rocks. Hundreds of spired and pinnacles like towers on a castle. That's what gave the canyon its name."

Kagome glanced at him with raised brows. "You have some poetry in you, Mr. Wolf."

He almost gave in to the urge to spit. "The whore—the _lady_—in Turquoise was right. Ain't no mining up there, at least not on the west slope. Anything else in the canyon that might interest your brother?"

"Not that I know of. I've heard there are settlers there—a family by the name of Hana. I haven't met them."

"If your brother went that way, they might have seen him."

She nodded. Lost in her own thoughts. They left the dwindling trail and rode across washed and gullies, past occasional beeves grazing on the yellowing grama, threeawn and bunchgrass that thrived in the valley.

The dry season was on Arizona Territory, but Kouga sensed rain coming in the days ahead. With any luck, it wouldn't fall until he had Souta Higarashi right under his nose.

The shadows were growing long when they reached Squaretop Hills. Kouga chose a campsite partially shielded by a thick growth of mesquite and unsaddled Diablo.

Kagome saw to her own horse while Kouga sniffed out water running just under a dry creek bed.

He dug into a basin and let the horses drink. Once they'd been rubbed down and staked out for the night, Kouga went hunting.

He shot a brace of cottontails and brought them back to camp, where Kagome had already gathered brush for a small fire.

Once again he was grudgingly compelled to admire her practicality, no matter how schoolmarmish she could be when the notion struck her.

Damn all women. Most weren't worth the confusion they inevitably brought with their presence. But as he began to skin the rabbits, he remembered why he'd looked forward to this night.

He tossed the bloodied animals to Kagome. They flopped into the dirt beside the new-made fire, and she gave a little jump.

Kouga smothered a grin of satisfaction.

"I got our supper," he said. "You cook 'em."

She picked up one of the carcasses and examined it with a critical eye. "Not much, is it?" she said. "Well, I'm not very hungry, myself."

Kouga shot to his feet. "How many do you want?"

"I said I'm not hungry." She drew a knife and set to work without the slightest sign of squeamishness.

He went to stand over her, hands on hips. "Never heard of any boy who wasn't hungry."

She wrinkled her nose, sniffed and waved at the air as if she'd smelled something distasteful, and after a moment he realized that her broad gestures were aimed in his direction.

"Some things can spoil even the healthiest appetite."

"You ain't exactly a nosegay yourself," he snapped. "If you only knew how bad humans—" He broke off in consternation and quickly recovered.

"Would you get your appetite back if I washed up, Higarashi?" He yanked off his neckerchief, shed his buckskin jacket and unbuttoned his waistcoat.

"I found a little water that ain't too muddy. You scrub my back, and I'll scrub yours."

The anticipating blush turned her face pink under the layer of dust. "That won't be necessary."

She focused her attention on the rabbits. "You can make yourself useful by rigging a spit—that is, of course, if _you_ have an appetite."

"A man on the trail takes what he can get—even if it ain't the sort of meat he prefers."

Her knife slipped, and he wondered if she'd guessed that he had seen through her masquerade. Kouga rigged the spit as requested, letter her do the rest.

He leaned back on his elbows a little way from the fire and studied her as nigh fell over the valley.

The moon and stars had the peculiar effect of softening Kagome's features, breaching her disguise more effectively than the brightest sunlight.

She knew he was watching her, but she pretended to be oblivious. "Your supper is ready," she said, stepping back from the fire. "I'll be with the horses."

"You prefer their company to mine?" He was enjoying this.

She braced her hands on her hips and stared him down. "I don't have to explain myself to you, Wolf. Is that clear enough?"

Kouga grinned, showing all his teeth, "Very clear, hombre."

He crouched by the fire and tore into the meat with gusto.

When he's finished one of the rabbits, he took a tin plate and seldom-used fork from his saddlebag, rinsed them in a freshly dug water hole, and sliced off steaming chucks of meat from the second carcass. He piled them on the plate and went t search for Kagome.

She never heard him approach. She's laid he bedding next to the mesquite where the horses were picketed and now sat crossed-legged on the blackest, her hat beside her, raking her fingers through the mass of tangled raven tresses.

It was longer than Kouga had imagined, for she wore it in tight braids that fir under the crown of her hat. She had a female's natural vanity after all.

Kouga crouched and breathed in the woman-smell of her body. He'd lied when he suggested that she needed a bath.

There was nothing unpleasant about her sent. Damn near the opposite. She smelled like a natural female—real and warm, like Ayame, but different…

The memory of Ayame cleared his head in a hurry. He set down the plate where even a human would find it and retreated as silently as he's come.

He walked around to the side of the hill, shucked his cloths and Crossed.

Even after so many times, he still marveled at the miraculous novelty of the transformation from man to wolf.

It was good to run free—free in a way he'd never understood before he accepted his Tasuki blood, free as no human could comprehend.

Stronger than either man or ordinary wolf, containing the best of both in one agile and powerful body.

He shook his thick black coat and twitched his large, mobile ears. He races across the valley floor, rattling the dry grasses and leaping waxy-leaved creosote and saltbush.

Wind sang in his fur. Mice scurried under his broad paws, and a startled cow with a young calf stoutly turned to face him as if she could drive him away with her lowered horns and snorts of alarm.

He left her alone. He wasn't after prey this night, and when he hunted cattle it was for some gain more than the filling of his belly.

Not that the wolf had ever brought him ant profit buy this…this shedding of human law, human conscience, human desire.

He opened his senses to their almost painful limits. Heard the frantic heartbeats of quail in their nests and smelled the musk of an angry skunk.

He shifted one scent from the next and found the place where Souta Higarashi had made damp few nights ago. The man's trail joined the wagon road that ran parallel to the Chiricahuas foothills.

Kouga circled back to Squaretop Hills and resumed his human shape and covering. He washed his face at the water hole and spread his blankets under the open sky.

He was still wide awake when Kagome approached, heavy footed like all humans but more graceful then most.

He heard her crouch several feet away, felt her study him as he's watched her before, with a bewilderment he sensed like a hum behind his eyes.

"You're awake?" she asked.

He rolled over to face her, resting his chin on his folded arms. "I don't sleep much."

She nodded as if that fact were of little surprise to her. Her hat brim cast her face in shadow, but he could see the gleam of her eyes.

"You didn't have to do it," she said in a low voice. "The food, I mean. I can take care of myself."

"Not if you'll pass up a fresh meal on the trail," he said. He sat up, scraping hair from his face. "You ate it?"

"Yes." She ser his cleaned plate and fork I the grass, staying out of reach. "I just came…to thank you."

Those words came hard to her, just about as hard as they did to him. He'd thanked maybe dozen of people in his life, if that. Never for something so small.

"Go to bed," he said. "I'll watch."

She retreated awkwardly. He heard her lie down and toss and turn on her blankets, trying to get comfortable.

He didn't think it was because she was too delicate for the unyielding ground. Something about her scent had changed, and he knew instinctively what it was.

Until now, she'd regarded him as a temporary employee and treated him like one. She'd been aware he was a man about the same way any female would be, sizing him up with out even realizing it, cool and objective.

But somewhere between his banter about the bathing and her accepting the food he brought, she'd started looking at him different. Not so objective. Not anywhere near so cool.

His body stirred in spite of itself, and he cursed softly. So what if she was interested? She would never admit it. She had some stake in playing the boy, and no reason whatsoever to act on her impulses, given that he was a stranger and she wanted to keep her respectability.

Souta Higarashi had been something less than respectable in Texas. Kagome must have known that their ranch in the Palo Duro was a haven for rustlers, but she didn't seem the type to approve of such illegal activities.

She made plenty of excuses for Souta Higarashi, but she hadn't been running the Texas spread.

Kouga flung his hand over his eyes.

Why was he making excuses for her?

He didn't give a damn one way or the other, and nothing would come of some fleeting attraction that was about as meaningful as a bull and heifer rutting in a field.

That was all it ever was to him—rutting. Drop your pants and thank you, ma'am. They were always whores, and he always hated himself when it was finished.

He'd only stop hating himself when he took Ayame in proper marriage, touched that unsullied skin and knew she accepted him. Needed him. Loved him.

Tonight he would dream only of Ayame. But as he slipped into that netherworld of shades and memories, he saw Ayame dressed in a soiled dove's garish plumage, turning from Kouga with disgust in her eyes.

It was Kagome Higarashi, in robes of virgin white, who held out her arms to welcome him home.

_Princess of Thieves 15: _ Wow! Holy crap that's a lot of pages, approximately 14! And I'm still not sure what I wanted this chapter to be about. I think it's a little early for a little of the confessions of this story, but, hey; it sorta' fits, don't it? We'll read and review! Love ya'll. .


	4. Some secrets are told

Disclaimer: Sometimes I think that I say this in my sleep, I don't own InuYasha.

A/N:  THESAURUS!THESAURAS!THESAURAS! It does wonders for your writing work. Just look at me. I have one built into the laptop, I was using the actual Thesaurus book for the longest time, but now everything's a lot easier.

_**SOME SECRETS ARE TOLD**_

Kagome braced herself on the saddle horn like a raw-faced tenderfoot, trying to stay awake.

She'd slept miserably last night, and not because of the meal Wolf had foisted on her, It wasn't the first time she'd eaten game roasted over an open fire, and once she'd decided to accept Wolf's "gift," she'd been glad for the hearty sustenance after a long day's ride.

It would be more accurate to say that the man himself was the source of her sleeplessness. God knew she hadn't expected him to go out of his way to feed her…and of course she'd wondered with every bite how much he'd seen when he'd left the plate at her beside.

She sneaked a glance at him form under the brim of her hat. He'd hadn't shown any new awareness last night or this morning.

He still treated her with an offhand indifference that sometimes bordered on contempt, just as she would expect a man like him to behave toward someone he clearly regarded as an overeducated, untried boy.

She'd been careful to pin up every stray lock of hair and powder her face with a fresh coating of dust when they broke camp early that morning.

Wolf, on the other hand, had washed his face and combed his dark hair, almost as if he'd taken to heart her rude comments about unpleasant odors.

Ever since she'd met him, Kagome had been on the defensive, He hadn't threatened her in any way, but she felt the need to keep proving herself, striking before he struck.

And that was absurd, especially when he scarcely bothered with conversation and seemed content to ignore her most of the time. He hadn't spoken after breakfast except to confirm that Souta had followed the road running north from Turkey Creek to Hakurei Canyon.

Yet she knew he was watching her. Maybe he'd guessed her secret and was only waiting for the chance to expose it.

But if he could sneak up on her as easily as he had last night, why wait? Perhaps he was simply not interested in the truth, one way or the other.

She should be down on her knees in gratitude that he was so indifferent.

A meadowlark called from the grassland to the east. Kagome cleared her throat. Wolf glanced at her and away again, turning his head toward the Chiricahuas foothills.

The mountains seemed an impenetrable wall from the valley, but Kagome knew they were riddled with arroyos and streams that shrank to trickles in the spring, drawing abundant wildlife to the shallow pools left behind.

Birds of brilliant plumage flashed like jewels in the darkness of the forest. Wolves and pumas roamed the highlands as one the Apaches had done.

Miners might dig and scour the earth for precious metals, but the few settlers who's made homes in the canyons had so far shown little to alter the pristine world the Indians had been forced to abandon.

Souta wouldn't notice the beauty of this land. The promise he saw lat only in the profit to be had.

"_Petit fou," _she muttered.

"That's French, ain't it?"

Kagome welcomed the rough sound of his voice even when it drowned the lark's melodious song. "It is a common enough language in Louisiana."

"I hear it's useful for swearing."

She laughed in spite of herself. He cast her an unreadable look. She wondered if her voice had gone too high and quickly stifled her incongruous amusement.

"Teach me," he said.

"What?"

"We got another ten miles' ride to Hakurei Canyon," he said. 'I figure that ought to be good for a few cuss words."

"I can't imagine that a man like you needs that kind of instruction."

"And what kind of instruction do I need, boy?" He snickered at her silence and flicked the ends of his reins across his muscular thighs.

"You know, when we met in Tombstone, I thought maybe you had more experience than your looks suggested. But Ready Mary…like most whores, she has an eye on easy prey. You've never been with a woman, have you?"

He didn't know. Kagome swallowed a sigh of relief. "What business is that of yours?"

He shrugged. "Let me give you a bit of advice, hombre. Stay out of saloons and whorehouses, when you find our brother, stick to that little rancho of yours and never trust anyone who offers you a free ride."

"Is that a warning drawn form personal experience?"

An ominous hush fell about him, like a calm before the storm.

"Everything costs. You don't get nothin' without paying for it."

"What makes you dislike women so much, Mr. Huan Lang?"

"I only met one female who could be trusted as far as a man can spit, and…" His voice softened almost to a whisper. "She's more angle than woman."

"What is her name?"

"Ayame."

Kagome's throat tightened at the awe and tenderness in his words. "Is she the one you love?"

He jerked back on the reins, and his stallion snorted in protest. Wolf muttered an apology to the horse and glared at Kagome. "I don't talk about her."

"You just did."

"Go ahead."

"As you wish." She rode a little ahead and felt his stare burn into her back like a red-hot brand. She couldn't hardly believe that a man like Wolf cold love anyone. But there had been no mistaking the look in his eyes and the sound of his voice.

She wondered what kind of paragon cold win such devotion…and how an angel could love him in return.

Kagome knew there were no angels on earth, male or female. In her two tears of marriage to Kurama Yoko, she had met ambitious society ladies who aspired to perfection.

They had all fallen prey to their human weaknesses. No one understood such weaknesses better than Kagome Higarashi.

She wondered how long it would take Wolf to realize that his angel had feet of clay instead of wings.

They rode on to the wide mouth of Hakurei Canyon, where Hakurei Canyon had carved a wedge out of the hillside and opened up a lovely side valley dotted with oaks.

Cattle lifted their heads to note the intruders and returned to their placid grazing. Grama grass gave way to sages and rushes in the wet meadow near the creek bed and spring.

Wolf made for the cienaga, and the two horses picked up their feet in anticipation of sweet fresh water.

The welcome shade of sycamore, ash, walnut and cottonwood spilled over Kagome's shoulders like a balm. Brightly colored birds flitted from tree to tree. Dragonflies skimmed across pools in the rocky bed.

Wolf dismounted from the spring and briefly closed his eyes as if he felt the healing spirit of the place as much as Kagome did.

"Two mules stopped here in the past few days," he said.

"Then we can't be too far behind Souta," Kagome said, joining Kouga beside the spring. "The Hana's cabin should be a little further up the canyon."

Kouga tossed Kagome her canteen and drank from his own. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand. "We'll make camp here tonight."

"We still have hours of daylight left."

"Better to get a fresh start in the morning. It's rough country up there, on horseback or afoot."

Kagome gazed up at the wooded peaks of the mountains. They were much more imposing at the northern end of the range than near Calico Creek. "If you're worried about me, there is no need. I can keep up"

"Maybe." Wolf wet his neckerchief and scrubbed the sweat from his face. "You gonna take your bath now, or wait to see if these Hana's have a washtub?"

"Don't worry, Mr. Wolf. I'll be sure to stay downwind of you."

Without any warning, he dipped his hand in the pool, scooped water in his palm and sent it flying at Kagome.

She fell back on her rump with a cry of surprise, runnels of cool liquid sliding down the back of her collar and making mud of the dust on her face.

"There's a start," he said.

She recovered in an instant, ready to return fire. But he moved quick as a fox, jumping up from the bank and putting the pale trunk of a sycamore between him and her watery missiles.

Kagome was too astonished to continue. Wolf was _playing. _It simply wasn't possible. He was laughing at her the way a boy would, treating her like a companion. A friend. And that didn't fit in any way with the Wolf she had begun to know.

As abruptly as he'd begun, Wolf ended the game. He stepped out from the sycamore, caught Diablo and swung into the saddle just as if the strange interlude had never happened.

Kagome knew that if she made anything of it, he would stare her down with that icy gaze and act as if she were the crazy one.

They left the magical sanctuary and rode on deeper into the canyon. The grassland oaks were dropping their leaves as they did every spring, conserving life for the hot days ahead. Mesquite trees on the hillsides hung heavy with yellow catkins. Turkey cultures circles lazily in a bright blue sky, portending death.

Kagome shivered. Souta was not dead. She broke Dark into a trot and led the way between steeper slopes clothed with pines at their tops. The meadow narrowed, and soon Kagome caught sight of a fence through the trees.

The Hana cabin was small, built of logs hewn from the forest instead of the adobe often seen on the plain or nearer the border.

A corral held a few calves, while a shed like barn stood ready for weary horses. Chickens scratched beside a lopsided coop.

The first sign of human life was a slender girl of fifteen or sixteen hanging laundry to dry on a line. She gave a little cry of surprise when she saw the approaching riders, smoothed her calico skirt and raced inside the cabin.

A few moments later a much older woman, stout and plain, came out the front door.

The girl fallowed her.

Kagome dismounted and led Dark the rest of the way, touching the brim of her hat in greeting, "Good afternoon," she said. "You would be Mrs. Hana?"

"That I am." The woman shaded her eyes and looked toward Kouga. "Welcome. This is my daughter, Rin. Mr. Hana is up in the canyon, but if you boys would care to take some refreshment…"

"Thank you, ma'am. That's most kind."

Kagome heard the faint brush of Kouga's steps behind her and stood a little straighter. "My name is Higarashi—Hojo Higarashi. This is Mr. Huan Lang. We've come from Tombstone, looking for my brother Souta. Have you by any chance seen a dark-haired young man with two mules passing this way?"

"My goodness," the woman said, gathering her apron between her hands. "We do see a few miners and lumbermen, though most are on the other side of the mountains. Tombstone, you say? We usually go to Willcox for supplies."

"I saw him," Rin said. "Mother was in the barn tending Daisy when he rode by. Father invited him to stay, but he was in a hurry. Like someone was chasing him."

She regarded Kagome and Kouga with bright, curious brown eyes. "Why are you looking for him? Are you really his brother?"

"That's enough of that," Mrs. Hana said. "Go inside, Rin, and make up a fresh pot of coffee. You boys will want to rest a bit and talk to Mr. Hana. I expect him back any time now."

Kagome glances at Wolf, whose face was devoid of expression. "We're grateful, ma'am," she said.

"Then see to your mounts and come on in. If you'll excuse me, I have a pot on the stove." She bobbed her head and bustled back through the door.

"It's a good thing we ain't outlaws," Wolf muttered passing Kagome with Diablo in tow.

"Hospitality is the custom in the Territory," Kagome said. "Most people welcome visitors."

"You better hope you don't get more hospitality than you bargained for."

He moved ahead before she could ask him what he meant. She fallowed him into the barn, empty of occupants save for a lone cow.

Kagome stripped Dark of his tack and treated him to measure of oats from her saddlebags . Kouga did the same with Diablo.

Rin arrived at the barn door, breathless and flushed. "Mother wanted me to tell you… supper's almost ready. Father should be here any moment." Her gaze darted from Kagome to Kouga.

"Mother also wanted…will you be…" Her flush deepened. " We can heat water if you want to wash up."

Wolf gave a bark of laughter. Kagome imagined how nice it would be to have a mule's hind leg for just long enough to give him a good swift kick in the posterior.

"That's very generous of you, miss," Kagome said. "But we won't impose. We'd planned to keep riding until—"

"Mother wouldn't hear of it," the girl said with some spirit. "Neither will Father. We have an extra room we keep if any travelers come from the army."

Her pretty face took on a wistful cast. "Will you tell me about Tombstone, Mr. Higarashi?"

Kagome's stomach chose that moment to rumble like a steam engine. "Well, I…"

Rin turned toward the door and looked back expectantly. Kagome saw no way out. The Hanas clearly intended to make the most of their unexpected quests. They wouldn't only insist on providing a meal and a clean bed, but they would also ask a hundred questions about the doing in Tombstone and throughout the Valley.

Kagome would have to maintain her disguise under the most trying of circumstances…and then there was the problem of Kouga Wolf.

Rin had mentioned only one extra bedroom.

In her heart, Kagome knew she couldn't keep up the masquerade forever, nor could she continue to hid at Calico Creek, avoiding contact with the other homesteaders.

Safety was an illusion. Sooner or later someone would discover that the younger Higarashi brother was female. Maybe it was time to drop the pretence.

But not just yet.

Not while she rode with Kouga Huan Lang.

She fallowed Rin into the house, half listening for Wolf's panther-soft tread. Her own boot heels clicked on the smooth puncheon floor.

The sent of simmering meat and vegetables fill the cabin's central room, which contained both the kitchen and a parlor with a fireplace. The parlor boasted an overstuffed sofa that must have been brought by train form the east, ruling grandly over the more humble homemade chairs and parlor table. A colorful quilt hung on one wall.

"I hope that venison stew suits you," Mrs. Hana said from the stove, pushing damp hair from her forehead with the back of her hand. "Please, sit down."

Kagome sat in one of the chairs at the dining table between the kitchen and parlor, admiring the braided rag rug that covered much of the floor. Wolf stalked in a slow circle like a beast in a cage.

Rin rushed into the room with a pitcher, spilling water on the kitchen floor. "Father's home," she announced.

Kouga paused by the fireplace and lifted his head, nostrils flared.

"He always knows when supper's ready," Mrs. Hana said with an indulgent laugh. She opened the stove's heavy door and pulled out a pan of biscuits, perfectly browned. "Get the butter, Rin."

The girl hurried to obey, and a few moments later a big man with salt-and pepper hair strode into the cabin. His face was damp, and he wore much-patched but clean clothing, as if he'd made some effort to make himself presentable fir his guest. Kagome got to her feet and took his offered hand.

"Mr.Hana," he said, nearly crushing her fingers. "Glad to have you Mr. Higarashi." He looked over he shoulder. "Mr. Huan Lang."

Kouga nodded without moving from his place by the hearth.

Kagome smiled all the wider. "I hope we aren't putting you to too much trouble, Mr. Hana."

"Not at all." He released Kagome's aching hand, joined his wife by the stove and gave her a hug about the shoulders. "Mrs. Hana loves to show off her cooking."

"Now, husband." She feigned affront, buy her eyes gleamed with pleasure. Rin arrived with the butter and began to set the table.

The plates were china, chipped but lovingly preserved from some former, more genteel home. Soon the table was piled high with a crock of savory stew, a plate of biscuits and a steaming pot of coffee.

Kouga still hadn't moved, and Kagome was about to risk calling him when he sat down next to her. Hana took the head of the table, and once Rin and Mrs. Hana had finished their serving duties, they sat in two of the three remaining chairs.

Hana bowed his head, and his family did the same. Kouga stared at the ceiling. Kagome lowered her eyes to the table's painstakingly polished surface, reciting the prayer through stiff lips.

If Mrs. Hana had any notion of who was sitting next to her innocent daughter…

"Amen," Hana murmured. Without another word he dug into the food, passing bowlfuls of stew to Kagome and Kouga before serving his family.

Mrs. Hana watched Kagome expectantly until she took a bite and made the appropriate noises of satisfaction.

Wolf ate with single-minded attention and never once looked up from his plate.

Kagome found it hard to swallow, though the food was as good as anything Sango made at home. Rin's curious glances were more shrewd than those of her parents/

Maybe she's guessed something was not quite right about "Mr." Higarashi.

But Wolf earned her most fascinated stares. And it was all Kagome could do not to shout a warning.

_Stay away from men like that, _ma bonne fille. _Wait and find a boy your age. Don't thorw away what good fortine had given you…_

She pushed her plate aside and patter her stomach. "Ma'am, I don't think I've tasted anything quite so fine in years. If he were more of a talker, I'm sure Mr. Huan Lang would say the same."

Wolf looked up from his cleaned plate. His pale eyes settled first on Kagome, then quickly move to Rin and Mr. Hana. "Good," he said.

"Your friend does talk Mr. Higarashi," Hana said with generous good humor.

"Hojo," Kagome said. Hana offered her and Wolf a pair of pipes, which both declined. The homesteader lit his own and settled in one of the rawhide chairs in the parlor.

Kagome took the other, while Kouga crouched on his boot heels beside the fireplace.

Hana smiled through his full beard. "Rin has told me something of why you gentlemen are in the canyon. I did meet a man fitting the description you gave, Hojo, but he was in a hurry to be on his way."

He tamped the tobacco in his pipe. "You've been following him from Tombstone?"

Kagome saw no harm in telling him at least part of the truth.

"Our ranch is in Calico Creek Valley, in the southern Chiricahuas," she said. "My brother left to buy cattle from some ranchers in the north Valley two weeks ago, but he disappeared, and we learned that he'd come up here…supposedly to look for ore."

"You must be his younger brother, from the looks of you," Hana said. "I'm sorry your kin has given you trouble."

"I'm worried that Souta…might have gotten lost up here. That's why I hired Mr. Huan Lang to track him in the mountains."

Wolf muttered something under his breath. Pans clanged in the kitchen. Hana puffed on his pipe. "Have you been with the army, Mr. Huan Lang?" he asked.

Wolf glanced at Hana without interest. "From time to time." Hana's eyes crinkled in amusement.

"Army scouts are notoriously taciturn men, Hojo. The best of them hardly ever make a sound, let alone indulge in idle conversation."

"So I've learned." She felt Wolf's stare and shifted in her seat. "Our foreman went looking for Souta a week ago," she said. "he's a former Buffalo Soldier with the Tenth Cavalry, tall—"

"I'm afraid I didn't see such a man. I've herd good things about the Tenth, though. Formidable fighters."

They drifted onto the subjects of army movements, the Apache and cattle prices. Kagome let Hana do most of the talking, while Kouga kept his thoughts to himself.

Eventually Mrs. Hana and Rin joined them, pulling chairs from the dining table.

"Will you tell us about Tombstone, Mr. Higarashi?" Rin asked eagerly. "Is it as wicked as they say?"

"Now, Rin," Mrs. Hana reproves.

Mr. Hana chuckled. "You'll have to excuse our daughter Hojo. She's heard too many fantastic stories." He sat down his pipe.

"Willcox is wild enough for us. I'd like to hear more of your ranch, and how you find the south end of the Valley. There are too many of us here, but more will be coming every day now that the Apaches have cleared out. If not for the rustler—" He glanced at Rin and thought better of the subject.

Kagome asked Mrs. Hana about the quilt on the wall, which led to an innocuous conversation about fabric and sewing.

Kagome listened with the polite incomprehension of any typical male. After Rin and Mrs. Hana retired, Hana asked Kagome for general new of the Valley and its residents.

Kagome had little to tell him. She'd spent most of her days deliberately sequestered at Calico Creek, working the cattle and letting Souta deal with the outside world.

If Hana found her ignorance strange, he didn't let on. He showed Kagome and Kouga the plain, neat room they would share for the night.

"You've done Mrs. Hana a heap of good by praising her cooking," Hana said. "She's gets a little lonely in the canyon with only Rin for company."

He lit a kerosene lamp and set it on a table near the door. "You men are welcome here any time."

"As you are in Calico Creek," Kagome said, glad that Hana would have no cause for such a visit. She thanked him again and closed the door to the room, her heart beating unpleasantly fast in the heavy silence.

Wolf was sitting on the wood-frame bed, pulling off his boots and stockings. The moment of truth was at hand.

Kagome turned and leaned against the door, folding her arms across her chest. "Can I ask you a question?"

Kouga arched his back in a bone-popping stretch. "When did you ever need my permission?"

"Why are you so rude to the Hanas? Is it because two of them are female?"

He looked at her with an expression of genuine surprise. "You still expecting pretty manners from me, boy? I thought you'd seen disabused of such notions."

"I hired you to do a job, and I'm prepared to pay the price. The Hanas don't know us, but they've been generous hosts. The least they deserve is the respect due decent people."

He got up from the bed and strolled toward her with a lazy air of tolerant amusement. "You gonna fire me because I was disrespectful to them decent, proper folk out there?"

She edged away from the door. "Fortunately, I don't think they'll hold it against you. They trust instead of judge, and I admire them for it."

Wolf stopped in the middle of the room and cocked his head. "Took a liking to that little filly Rin, did you, boy?"

"Not the way you mean."

"She's wild for a little freedom, ain't she? How well d'you think she'd make out in Tombstone?"

Kagome balled her fists. "Her parents take care of her. They love each other. You never had that kind of family, did you, Wolf? A sister, a brother to look after, or who looked after you."

"No." The denial cracked like a thick oak branch snapped on a storm. "I've never had a family like that."

She met his stony gaze, swallowed the knot in her throat. She could see the pain he tried not to show, pain she saw only because she had become so accustomed to discerning the motives of men.

"I'm sorry," she said. "It's none of my business."

He seemed not to hear. "I had a mother and a father and half brothers. We never lived together."

_Mon Dieu. _Was he implying that he was a bastard? In the West that was not so terrible a thing as in the cultured East, but it would have marked him.

She felt the compulsion to match his confession with one of her own…Madness, just like the fact that they were her together, alone in this room.

"My father left my family when I was young," she said,

His gaze returned to hers. "That's a damned shame, boy," he said, only half-mocking. "Your ma raise you and Souta?"

"She worked hard." Kagome stared longingly at the washstand, with its fresh water and clean towels.

She was desperate to scrub the dirt from her face, remove her hat and let down her hair. That wouldn't happen tonight. "You go ahead and get some sleep, Wolf. I'm going to check on the horses."

She started for the door. Kouga was there first. "You're a lousy liar," he said conversationally.

"Why are you so afraid of being in this room with me?"

"I'm not afraid." He was barely four inches away, nearly touching her chest to chest. "I just like my privacy."

He leaned closer. His breath stirred the fine hairs at her temples. "I'll just bet you do." His gaze dropped to her lips.

"You've ever been with a man, Hojo-boy?"

She jumped straight up and scrambled sideways, clumsy with shock. It wasn't possible. She would have known.

She'd met men like that before—the New Orleans brothels catered to every taste, no matter how eccentric.

But Wolf had spoken of his angel Ayame. He had known women. Yet there were all those comments about baths. Perhaps he was equally partial to both…

He lightly grasp her chin with his fingertips, lifting her face closer to his, Kouga lips parted ready to welcome her.

She didn't have time to think. She snatched the hat from her hair and pulled at the braids. Her hair tumbled loose down her back.

"I'm not a boy, _cochon_, so keep your hands to yourself."

_Princess of Thieves 15: _Yay! Finally done with this chapter! So how was it? I hope you liked it and enjoyed it just as much as I had when I wrote it. I absolutely love Kouga! He's kinda different in each of my fanfictions, but I think this one could be my favorite. REVIEW PLEASE! 0 (Now I'm going to bed) -.- z z z.


	5. All in the finding

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha

A/N: AHAHAHAHA! I GOT KINGDOM HEARTS 2! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR IT FOR EVER. OMG! It's so cool, and the graphics and music are gorgeous, like always. So updates will be coming in at a much slower pace, sorry. AtamaHitoride and I will be playing it all the time. So enjoy.

_**ALL IN THE FINDING**_

Kouga laughed. He laughed so loud and hard that Kagome was afraid he would wake the whole house.

She charged, pushing him to the far wall beside the bed and pressed her hand over his mouth. "_Taisez-vous, derange!" _she hissed.

He gripped her wrists and pried her hands from his face. His mouth came down on hers, lips barley open, as if he meant to bruise instead of caress.

Just as suddenly, he released her. She scrubbed at her mouth while he withdrew to the bed and stretched out full-length, head pillowed on his wrist, bare feet crossed at the ankles.

"Now that's done," he said. "Unless you want more of the same."

Kagome stared at him without comprehension. Good God, she had utterly failed with him in nearly every respect. And he was laughing at her. He was laughing.

She leaned on the wall and caught her breath, lungs straining against the bindings that held her breasts flat. "How long have you know?" she demanded.

"Since we met." He yawned and snapped his teeth like an animal. "I knew it'd have to come out sooner or later. Just a question of when."

She thought quickly back over every encounter she'd had with the fold in Tombstone, the women in Turquoise and the Hanas.

"How is it that you guessed when no one else had?"

"I see things that are hidden," he said. "I'm very good at it."

"So you've been playing with me." She smiled, picked up her hat and laid it on the table. "I'm sure it's been most amusing."

"You were playing games, not me," he said. "Are you afraid of men, or is it just that you wish you had a little more between you legs?"

Kagome pronounced her most elegant curse. "I wouldn't be one of your sex for anything in the world. And as for being afraid…"She leaned over the foot of the bed. "I've known how to protect myself since I was five."

He propped himself up on his elbows and stared pointedly at her chest. "Maybe it ain't fear. The devil knows what you're like under that getup. Maybe you're just scared no man would want you."

How she longed in that moment to prove just how much men had wanted her—still wanted her, whenever they saw her as she was, as she could be.

But he was still playing like a cat with a mouse. He was testing her for weakness. Men did not make her weak.

"Maybe," she said, "I don't want them."

He wet his lips, and she shivered at the memory of his mouth on hers. _Cochon. _She should have hit him. And there was the .44 at her hip…

"How old are you—Hojo—16, 17?" he asked, interrupting her fantasies. "What's your real name?"

"A lady never reveals her age," she said. "And Kagome is good enough for me. I don't need fancy things. Only my freedom."

"Freedom to ride around wild without any of the _proper_ folk knowing about it?"

Heat rushed into her cheeks. "It harms no one. I work the ranch like my brother, like our hands InuYasha and Sesshomaru. I have no children and no husband to tend."

He leaped up from the bed and crossed to the washstand, wetting one of the towels. Kagome guessed his intent but refused to run.

He bathed her face with surprising gentleness, wiping away the accumulated grime.

He whistled softly.

"You clean up real nice," he said. "My guess is that ugliness ain't your problem."

She took the towel from his hand and returned to the washstand. Her own face, framed by raven hair, stared back at her from the oval mirror.

"I have no problem," she said, "as long as people leave me alone."

Kouga's reflection joined hers. Solemn, not mocking, not cruel.

"Why?" he asked. "You thought if I knew what you were, I'd hurt you. Did a man hurt you, Kagome?"

The caressing not in his voice set her swaying like a willow in a high-desert wind. Oh yes, he was very good at finding things that were hidden.

But he had said she was a lousy liar, and that meant he too, could make mistakes. She had become very good at lying with absolute sincerity.

"I've seen what men can do to women," she said, meeting his eyes in the mirror. "I prefer to keep myself unentangled."

He lifted a strand of hair in his calloused fingers.

"We're two of a kind, ain't we, Kagome? I've got no use for women."

"Except Ayame."

His eyes narrowed in anger and relaxed again. "You never loved a man?"

"Never."

"You were always safe from me."

"I couldn't be certain of that. If I dress as a man, it means I expect to live in a man's world. No special favors." _No being lusted after because of how I look. No lying under some smelly, sweating pig who can't or won't be true to a woman of his own. No more hypocrisy. _

"You told me never to touch you the way I did in Turquoise," she said. "Now I'm telling you the same thing. Never touch me again."

To her secret amazement, he backed away, hands raised as if to ward off attack. His mouth curled in a smile.

"I don't plan to," he said. "that was just to prove that there ain't nothing between us but business."

Because he'd kissed her and felt nothing. He was a wonder, a marvel—true to his dream of one woman and not even tempted by such intimacy with another.

Her opinion of him kept changing, and she wanted no more than to flee this house and breath the sweet night air until her head was clear of this constant spinning.

"I believe you," she said slowly. "God knows why."

"You're a religious one, are you, Kagome-girl?" he asked, heading for the door. "Say a few prayers for me."

"I doubt my prayers would do you any good."

"Maybe not," he pointed his chin toward the washstand, "Clean up. I'll be back in an hour, Kagome-girl."

"Wolf! Don't call me Kagome-gi—"

He walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Kagome felt her way to the bed and sat down with a thump. Perspiration prickled along the back of her neck, and she realized what she had denied every moment of the past ten minutes.

She'd been terrified. Only part of the fear had been of Wolf himself. The rest had come from her utter lack of control, her mistake in underestimating a man she should have known was more dangerous than she could imagine.

Moving with short, sharp jerks, she unbuttoned her waistcoat, unbelted her gun, pulled off her shirt and unwound the bandages underneath.

Her breast ached. She slipped off the men's britches and the suspenders that held them up around her waist.

Layer by layer, she stripped down to her skin and stood naked before the washstand. She used two of the towels to bathe her body, combed out her hair until it was free of snarls and tangles, and unpacked her spare shirt from her saddlebags.

She counted every minute she spent in the room.

When she was dressed again, she took the basin and refilled it from the pump between the cabin and the barn. Laundry flapped in the night breeze, but she caught no sight of Wolf.

She met him at the door of the bedroom. His hair was damp and his face clean. He looked her over and gave a short nod. "Good. I'll sleep in the barn tonight."

"No special favors, Wolf."

"Be a damned waste if that bed don't get some use."

Not a hint of innuendo shaded his words. Kagome relaxed. "All right. You take it for three hours, and I'll take it after that."

"After I dirty up the sheets? I wouldn't wish that on anyone. You go first."

"You're a stubborn _tete de mule, _Wolf."

"Whatever that is, I'll take it as a compliment." He touched the brim of his hat and turned to go. She made a move to stop him. He froze.

"Why?" she asked. "You don't like women. You don't trust them. Now that you know what I am—"

He turned around, towering over her, though she was small and delicate, she stood with a unyielding will.

"If you was a regular woman," he said, "I'd leave you here and forget about your brother."

"I suppose I should take _that _as a compliment."

"Take it how you like," he said. "You keep up with me the way you been doin', and we won't have no dustups between us."

She watched him stalk down the hall and out the front door. The bedroom seemed strangely empty.

She took off everything buy her shirt and lay down, stiffly at first, trying to catch Kouga's scent on the sheets. It was almost too faint to be noticeable.

She concentrated on the sounds of crickets and a whip-poor-will in the nearby meadow until exhaustion claimed her. Once she woke, briefly, to the sound of a distant wolf's howl.

Dawn sifted through the thin muslin curtains. Kagome swung her legs over the side of the bed and pulled on her pants. Wolf's saddlebags were gone.

She finished dressing in haste, torn between annoyance with Kouga and delight at the rich scent of frying bacon. There would be fresh eggs, perhaps flapjacks, as well, and she found herself ravenous.

With her saddlebags over her shoulders, she left the bedroom and entered the living area. Mrs. Hana had the table set for breakfast. Rin brought a pail of fresh milk from the barn. She smiled at Kagome.

"If you're looking for you friend, he's outside with my father," she said. She flushed a little, glancing aside at her mother.

"I hope you slept well," Mrs. Hana said. She carried a frying pan of eggs to the table and slid them onto a platter.

"Wonderfully," Kagome said, "Thank you ma'am."

"Mr. Wolf said he wanted to let you rest up for the day ahead. He must have been out with the horses well before dawn; he's already helped Mr. Hana repair the corral fence,"

She bustled back to the stove. "For a man who doesn't talk much, he can certainly make himself useful."

_Indeed, _Kagome thought. "I'm afraid I haven't been."

"Never mind that. The men should be in shortly." As she'd predicted, Hana and Wolf arrived a few moments later, sharing the silent camaraderie of men who've labored together.

Wolf hardly glanced in Kagome's direction. Mr. Hana invited his guests to sit, said grace and served the meal.

Kagome watched Wolf out of the corner of her eye. He hadn't spent any part of the night in the bedroom, but the Hana's didn't realize it. Her secret was safe.

When breakfast was finished, Mr. Hana saw her and Wolf out to the barn. The horses stood saddled and ready.

"You be careful up there," Mr. Hana said, passing Wolf a bundle that Kagome guessed must contain fresh food. "No Apaches as far as I know, but still plenty of places to get into trouble. I've been hearing wolves lately."

Kouga seemed to take the warning in the spirit it was intended. He swung into the saddle. "We'll get by."

Hana gazed up at the sky. "I'd swear it's going to rain. Not that I'm complaining, mind you—rain in the dry season is always welcome. But I hope it doesn't interfere with your search."

Kagome fallowed his gaze. She hadn't considered bad weather to be a factor in finding Souta, but Hana was right. Clouds had gathered sometime in the night, and the look of them boded a rare late-spring rain.

She concealed her worry and gripped Hana's hand. "Please thank your wife and daughter for their hospitality."

"That I will. You're welcome any time. Good luck."

She tipped her hat and mounted Dark. With a last wave, she reined east along the canton that curved deeper into the mountains. She let the gelding pick his path, since there was really only one way to go and her thoughts were otherwise occupied.

Wolf rode beside her, easy in posture and expression.

What had he said last night, after he kissed her? _Now that's done. _A chore to be gotten out of the way, an irritating distraction vanquished. Certainly nothin had had some of it, except a little wounding of her pride.

So why couldn't she let it go, as he did? Was it anger she felt, that a man had bester her… or something else entirely?

"How did you sleep?" she asked casually.

"About as well as you."

"You left the bed to me all night. You're in danger of being mistaken for a gentleman, Wolf."

He cast her a grim, searching look. "I'm no gentleman, and you're no lady. That's the bargain."

She knew that he meant he had no expectations of her except that she do her part to find Souta. Wolf didn't know what a precious gift he'd given her—the gift of equality and respect.

She wondered if he would accord his Ayame such a privilege.

Morning light cast long shadows in the canyon. The gain in elevation along the watercourse brought more pines interspersed with oaks.

The forests closed in on either side of the path; red fox squirrels flashed bushy tails in warning. Clouds continued to gather in the southwest, thicker and darker than before.

The first notched pinnacles appeared just as the horses rounded a sharp bend in the arroyo. Red columns, many jointed wall-like ramparts, others standing alone, towered above the tress. Some were shaped like strange animals or birds or gesturing men.

Deep joints, like miniature slot canyons, ran between them.

"We'll see a lot more of those," Wolf remarked, deftly guiding his stallion over a bulging mass of rocks. "This broken terrain was what made the Chiricahuas so good for the Apaches trying to escape the army. Wasn't easy for men to pursue on horseback."

He glanced at the lowering sky. "Don't worry. I'll find him."

Wolf remained in the saddle for the next mile. Often he bent low over Diablo's barrel, supple as a cat, to examine the ground.

When the main trial branched, Wolf chose the fainter course. But soon the way became rough and uneven, pushing between ocher turrets and thick stands of pine.

"We walk," he finally said. Kagome dismounted and took Dark's lead. The air was rarer here than at Calico Creek, cooler and sharper.

She saw traces of snow on the highest mountains. At noon they briefly stopped for Mrs. Hana's sandwiches, made of that morning's fresh bread and leftover bacon.

Wolf checked the horses' hooves for stones, and then continued along the track. He sifted dust between his fingers and paused to contemplate the very rocks as if the spoke to him.

"Your brother came this way," he said in answer to Kagome's questioning look. "He moved slowly. One of his mules was lame."

He gazed at the steep slope ahead. It was almost impossible to pick out any sort of trail amid the rubble, low shrubs and pinnacles.

"I'm going on alone, on foot. The horses can't travel quick enough in this country. You'll have to stay here and watch them."

"I agree, Mr. Wolf," she said. "I'll make camp."

He blinked, as if he'd still expected her to argue in the way of a "normal" female. And then he smiled. The expression transformed him—for an instant, no more, just long enough for Kagome to glimpse that playful boy who'd splashed her in Hakurei Creek.

She smiled back at that boy like the thirteen-year-old girl from Prairie d'Or, the child who'd grown up with farm dirt between her toes and all the wild places at her sanctuaries. The girl who was so good at pretending.

Before she could regret what her won smile revealed, Wolf thrust Diablo's lead into her hand, sat on the nearest boulder and removed his boots and stockings. He sprang to his feet and sprinted lightly up the trail.

Fast as he was, his bare feet didn't dislodge as mush as a pebble. He rounded a curve out of Kagome's sight.

Kagome led the horses to the shade of a cliff. The strong afternoon sunlight hid behind heavy cloud cover, and she thought she smelled rain. The horses were restless, sensing both the change of weather and her unease.

She sat with her back to the cliff and closed her eyes, forcing her thoughts away from Souta. She wondered if Kouga had learned his tracking from the Indians.

She'd never heard of a white man running barefoot in the mountains. She'd never heard of anyone quite like Kouga.

A light rain began to fall within the first hour. Soon it became a downpour, and Kagome moved Dark and Diablo to the shelter of a stand of pines.

She paced restless circles around the horses, water dripping from the brim of her hat. Dusk fell quickly. Wolf returned just as the storm came to an abrupt end.

"I found Souta," he said.

Kagome didn't sway or swoon. Her gaze held Kouga's as she waited for the worst.

"Dead?" she whispered.

"Alive. Barely." He took her arm and made her sit, though she flinched at the contact. He let her go as soon as he was sure she wouldn't fall.

"He's only about a mile from here, but he was hidden in an arroyo. I didn't see any sign of the mules."

"Did he speak?"

Kouga knew he couldn't give her anything but the truth, at least abut her brother's condition.

"There's not too much blood or deep wounds that I could see, but he's unconscious. Looks like he fell and hit his head. Could have been lying there a couple of days."

"Oh, God."

"He's in one piece. Nothing got at him."

Kagome scraped her palms across her face. "You left him alone."

He bristled, as if her accusation had the power to wound him. She couldn't know that he's tracked most of the way as a wolf, hiding his cloths in s crevice until he was ready to return.

The rain had mad his hunt much more difficult. Even in wolf form, he'd been luck to find Souta at all.

"I didn't want to risk carrying him," Kouga said gruffly, "so I came for Diablo." He sniffed the air. "It won't rain anymore tonight. There's a pool on the other side of that low ridge. Find come dry wood, if you can, and get a fire going. "

Her dazed eyes looked through him. "Souta needs me,"

"You can help him best when I bring him back." He pulled a large empty can from one saddlebag and pressed it into her hands. "You can use this to heat some water,"

She took the can and stood. "Go…I'll have everything ready."

He unties Diablo and left at once. The stallion was surefooted and willing to follow where Kouga led. Full night had fallen by the time man and beast stood on the ledge overlooking the deep but narrow gorge where Souta lay.

Kouga scrambled down the rocky cave to the bottom and crouched beside the fallen man. Souta hadn't moved since his black hair was caked with dirt and blood, and one of his arms was broken inside.

The other hand grasped a torn fragment of paper, nearly disintegrated by the rain. Enough of it remained for Kouga t recognize what he'd been searching for.

Someone had been here with Souta—someone who'd taken the rest of the map and had made a clean getaway with the mules and gear.

Kouga's first thought was that Bankotsu had done it, but Bankotsu was behind bars in Nocturne. That was why he'd sent Kouga.

All telltale tracks of the intruder and the mules had been washed away in the storm. Souta's clothing was too saturated to hold any scent but his own. Not even a wolf had much hope of hunting down the thief.

Kouga crouched beside Souta and scooped the soggy scrap of paper out of the young man's hand. If it weren't for Kagome…he would be off looking for the map no matter what his chances of finding it.

But she was waiting, and he'd promised to find her brother.

"I found you," he said in disgust. "Not that you were worth the trouble. I'd as soon leave you here for the buzzards."

Souta didn't answer. The rise and fall of his chest was the only outward sign that he was alive. There was some risk in moving him, but Souta's odds of survival were nonexistent if he didn't get out of the mountains.

With a scowl, Kouga gathered the young man's sprawled limbs and lifted him, trying not to move the broken arm more than necessary.

He shifted Souta over his shoulder, made sure of his balance, and claimed back up the cliff face.

Diablo snorted and flared his nostrils, snuffling at Souta with frank disapproval. Kouga quieted the horse, lifted Souta onto his back and secured the unwelcome burden with rope from the saddlebags.

Souta was as limp as a sack of grain.

Darkness made for a treacherous descent, but Kouga's keen vision picked out the easiest path.

Firelight marked his destination for the last quarter mile. When they arrived, Kagome ran up to Diablo and stopped to stare at her brother's pale face.

She murmured French words in a voice broken with horror. Kouga fought the urge to dump Souta on his head and end his troublemaking for good.

"Your brother's still alive, and at least he ain't bleeding," he said as he unties the ropes. Kagome helped Kouga ease Souta to the ground, cradling the injured man's head I her hands.

She'd made a bed of blankets and laid out scraps of cloth to bind any wounds, but Kouga was pretty sure that the worst of Souta's injuries were inside, where she couldn't reach them.

Kagome cut away her brother's shredded clothes, covered him with blankets and continued to speak to him in her melodious French, alternately scolding and pleading.

The scolding was all an act to hold the tears at bay, but it seemed to work.

Kouga gathered sturdy sticks to make a splint for Souta's arm, while Kagome cleaned Souta's cuts and bathed his face and hairline with warm water, revealing the huge raised bump and ugly gash where he'd hit his head in the fall.

Kagome sucked in her breath and closed her eyes.

"He could have bled to death," Kouga said awkwardly. "Head wounds are like that. He was lucky."

"Lucky." She shivered. "How did this happen?"

"Looks like he missed his footing," Kouga said, which wasn't really a lie. "Easy to do up here."

"_Mon pauvre." _She rinsed the cloth in the can of hot water and dapped at the wound. "You never saw the mules?"

"The rain washed away their tracks. They must have escaped when Souta fell. Could be on the other side of the mountains by now, if a panther didn't get them."

"No sign of Miroku?"

"He probably never picked up your brother's trail."

"He may even be back at the ranch by now." She brushed at the damp tangles in Souta's hair. "The important thing is that we saved Souta. He'll explain what happened when he…"

She bit hard on her lower lip. "You don't have to tell me. Men who hit their heads and don't wake up—"

She was fighting tears, and Kouga couldn't bare it.

"Some recover," he said.

"Some," she echoed. She bent to kiss Souta's brow. "There isn't much more I can do for him here, but the Hanas must have a wagon we can borrow to carry him home."

"You should leave him with them until you can get a doctor."

"No. I want him home, where I—" She shook her head. "It will take days to get a doctor, no matter where we are."

She rose and searched her saddlebags. Coins jingled in a small leather pouch. She picked out three silver dollars and offered them on her open palm.

"You've more than earned your fee, Mr. Wolf. I'll pay you the same again if you'll ride to Tombstone and send a doctor to Calico Creek."

Kouga stared at the coins with sudden and overwhelming distaste. "What about getting your brother home?"

"It's less than forty miles from the mount of Hakurei Canyon. I can manage with a wagon."

Anger tightened Kouga's chest until he could barely breathe.

"Why should I bother to earn the money when I could take it from you right now?"  
She closed her fist around the coins. "You could have done so at any time, Mr. Wolf."

"Don't call me that." Kouga got up and stalked out of the firelight, turned on his heel and faces her again. "No one ever calls me _mister."_

"What do you want to be called?"

"Kouga, just Kouga."

"I usually go by Kagome at home."

"When you're not a boy."

She nodded, staring into the fire. "I was christened Hojo."

Kouga felt the anger evaporate as quickly as it had come.

"Kouga Huan Lang," he muttered.

"It's a nice name."

"There's nothing nice about me. But I'll rise to Tombstone, and you don't need to pay me a cent."

"I thought you needed the money."

"I'll take two dollars."

Solemnly she passed him the coins, and he shoved them in his pocket. "Now you get some sleep," he ordered. "I'll watch."

"No more arguments? You permit me to trust you after all?"

He pointed toward her bedroll. "Sleep. I'll ride for Tombstone soon's we get a wagon from the Hanas and you're on your way home."

She smiled at him warmly, and he was afraid she was about to say something stupid and sentimental. But she went to her blankets and lay down of her side, gazing at her brother's expressionless face.

Kouga sank to his heels by the fire and waited her out. Eventually the long day took its toll, and Kagome slept.

He tested the air for the scent of two-or four-legged intruders. Nothing stirred. He tossed pebbles into the fire until it burned down to ashes, considering how best to proceed with his plan.

The map was gone, and there was no telling how close Souta had been to his goal when he met with his "accident."

Kouga was likely to find the treasure with a random search of every arroyo, mining camp and settlement in the Chiricahuas. But it was a sure bet that the thief would be looking for it.

Kouga had to stay in the area if he wanted to catch his prey.

There was only one other way to learn the contents of the map, and that was to wait and see if Souta recovered enough to talk.

Either possibility presented the same challenge. Kouga had to find a legitimate excuse to remain in the Valley, close to Calico Creek.

And he had an idea how to manage it, even though it would make his life a thousand times more complicated. Even though he would have to keep lying to Kagome for as long as it took.

The problem was the he _liked _her. Hell and damnation, he liked and respected a female who hadn't enough sense to see him for what he was.

Ayame knew. She'd seen into his deepest soul. Without her…

A wolf's howl echoes among the pinnacles. Kagome woke with a start.

"Kouga?"

"Here."

She rubbed her eyes and tossed her blankets aside. "I heard wolves."

"They won't do us any harm."

The howling came again. Kagome crawled to Souta and touched his cheek. "Could they have attacked Souta and caused him to fall?"

"Ain't likely. Wolves are more afraid of men than men are of them."

"Most people would consider them dangerous."

"Most people don't know them."

She sighed, stroking Souta's hair. "All the wild creatures are leaving the mountains," she said with an aching, almost tangible sadness. "The Apaches lost their country, and soon the wolves will be gone."

"A few will survive."

"The strongest. The most ruthless."

"Do you blame them?"

"No. I don't blame anything for trying to stay alive."

"Then go back to sleep. I'll be here."

She tugged Souta's blankets higher around he shoulders and lay down again.

"_Bonne nuit, _Kouga. Good night."

The wolves answered for him.

_Princess of Thieves 15: _ OMG! Have I ever told ya'll how much I REALLY love Kingdom Hearts 2…I think I have; well here it is again: I LOVE KINGDOM HEARTS! Ok lol, hope you enjoyed, review please! .


	6. It's your choice

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha…I can swear on it

A/N: I realized that now Kingdom Hearts is back…there's gonna be a problem between me and Kouga…

**Sora**: Uh…PaviElle, why is that grown man wearing a skirt.

**Kouga**: You have no right to judge you spiky haired bastard, look at your shoes! PaviElle who is this?

**PaviElle**: AH! Um…K-Kouga this is Sora…my…first love.

**Kouga**: WHAT! First love, first love. Are you crazy? I've been with you for three years

**Sora**: Hey, hey, hey, I was here first buddy so back off

**Kouga**: oh ho! You're on fool. You look more like a challenge then that dog face!

**InuYasha**: Hey! Don't bring me into this! That's it you're going down!

**Sora**: PaviElle run!

**PaviElle**: no…

**Lauren**: I hate to say I told you so, but I TOLD YOU SO! I knew you would have this problem, you have too many men

**PaviElle**: I know…(faints)

**Lauren**: PaviElle…Prissy?

To be continued…

****

**_IT'S YOUR CHOICE_**

"She's back," Sango said, pausing breathlessly in the doorway of the barn where Miroku was shoeing Sesshomaru's dun mare. "Lady Kagome's back!"

Miroku set down the mare's hoof and straightened to wipe the sweat from his forehead. His heart thumped into its regular rhythm. "How does she look?"

"I can't tell yet. Kohaku saw her coming down the road in a wagon. God grant she's found Mr. Souta."

Miroku closed his eyes. "I'll ride out to meet her."

"How's that leg?"

"Fine. I told you it was nothing."

"You'd say that if it was cut off at the knee. You take care while you ride. I'm getting that poor child something to eat."

She rushed off, full of purpose, as she always was when she had someone to care for. Especially Kagome. They had a long history together, sisters in all but blood.

When he'd first met Kagome and Sango, Miroku had envied that unique female intimacy. Sango had been born into a small world, and Kagome Higarashi had endured her own brand of servitude, but she'd been free enough to make her own choices.

Just as Miroku had.

He led the dun mare out to the corral and saddled his own favorite, a big-boned grullo gelding he called Hierro for his iron coloring. Kohaku was in the yard, excitedly repeating his news to his little cat Kirara.

InuYasha and Sesshomaru were combing the range for cows with newborn calves, but they would be back in time for supper.

Miroku rode out of the yard, past the outbuildings and the main house to the rutted dirt road that ran alongside Calico Creek.

Road and creek emerged from a Bosque of sycamores, ash and cottonwoods into a spare land of broken hills dotted with oak and pinion pine.

On every side rose mountains—Liebres to the west, Chiricahuas to the northeast and Pergolas to the south.

A few cattle—pitifully few—stood out like fat ticks on a yellow dog's hide. A plume of dust marked the wagon's position, and Miroku spurred Hierro to meet it. He could just make out the bundled human shape in the bed of the wagon.

Souta. He wasn't moving, but Kagome hadn't covered his face. His head was bond in heavy bandages, and his right arm had been splinted and strapped to his chest.

Kagome's features were strained and wary, yet she still summoned a smile for one of the few men she trusted.

"Miroku," she called as he pulled up beside the wagon. "Thank God you're here."

Miroku touched the brim of his hat. "I'm sorry I gave you cause for worry, Lady Kagome. I just got back last night. I rode over half the Valley looking for word of Mr. Souta, but--"

He choked on his excuses and shook his head. "You found him."

"Two days ago, up in Hakurei Canyon." She glanced over her shoulder at her brother, and Miroku saw the fear she so seldom revealed. "He's alive, but badly hurt."

Miroku stared into the wagon bed. Souta didn't look alive. Any man might mistake him for just the opposite. "When Sango told me you'd gone on from Tombstone…"

"Don't blame yourself, Miroku," Kagome said. "I know you did what you could." She frowned. "What happened to your leg?"

He rubbed the stiff limb. "Hierro caught a prairie-dog hole and threw me. It's just a little sore."

"I'm glad you're all right."

His health was the last thing he wanted to discuss. "Sango said you'd hired a tracker. She's been sick with worry herself."

"I know." Kagome clucked to her footsore team. The horses had already smelled the water from the spring and increased their pave, ears pricked toward the green swath of trees.

"The tracker rode straight for Tombstone to bring the doctor. I expect both of them any time."

"Sango knows you're coming Lady Kagome. I'll tell her about Mr. Souta." Miroku wheeled Hierro about and ride back to the house, grateful to escape the horrible sight of Souta's pale, staring face.

Sango came out as soon as he dismounted at the garden fence,

"She found Souta," Miroku said. "He's hurt bad, but a doctor's coming." "Then we'll need an extra bed made up," Sango said. "Miss Kagome?"

"As well as you'd expect. Bone-weary and downhearted."

"Alone?"

"Someone patched Souta up, but she's by herself now. That tracker she hired is getting the doctor in Tombstone."

Sango pursed her lips. "I didn't know back then if Miss Kagome did the right thing in hiring him, but I was wrong to doubt her judgment."

She peered up at Miroku's face. "And why the sorrowful looks, Sergeant Kazzana? The Lord's blessed us this day."

Miroku pretended to adjust Hierro's bridle. Sango always knew what he felt inside, even when he didn't show it. "I failed Lady Kagome, Sango."

She gripped his forearm with a strong, slender hand. "It was Mr. Souta who failed her first. Now go help Miss Kagome and let me get back to my work."

She rushed inside, leaving the faint comforting scent of flour behind her. Kohaku dashed up toMiroku and tugged at his sleeve. "Can I ride Hierro, Miro?"

_Now you hide behind a child, _Miroku thought as he scooped the boy up onto the saddle. But he was glad for Kohaku's incessant chatter, especially when Kagome made the last turn away from the creek and past the outermost corral.

Miroku met the wagon, letting Kohaku stay on Hierro's back while he carried Souta into the house.

Sango gave Kagome a firm hug in the doorway and spoke softly to her friend. Kagome answered, but Miroku didn't hear her words.

Souta felt like skin and bones in his arms. He didn't stir even when Miroku laid him down on his bed.

"Thank you, Miroku," Kagome said. She touched his arm and knelt at her brother's bedside.

"Do you know how this happened?" Miroku asked, sick in his belly.

"Don't you be bothering her with questions," Sango said. She put a basin of steaming water on the side table. "You're just getting in the way, Miroku Kazzana."

He knew she was right, but he lingered for a few moments, watching Souta's face for some sign of awareness. "I'm sorry, Lady Kagome."

But she was lost in her own worries, and Sango had no time for him. He left the room and the house, swung Kohaku down from Hierro's back, and rode for a certain hill where a man could see most of the valley and the road along Calico Creek.

At dusk he glimpsed a funnel of dust and then two riders approaching at a steady lope.

He met them half a mile from the homestead and quikly took stock of the newcomers. The older man bowed low over his horse in echaustion, but the younger sat erect in the saddle, and his stare was that of a born predator.

This was the tracker Sango had spoke of with such wariness.

Miroku turned to the other man. "Doctor?"

"Suikotsu," the man coughed. "I hope the patient is still alive after…all this way."

"He's alive. Please follow me."

The doctor sighed and kicked his mount's sweat-streaked barrel. The tracker reined his black stallion alongside Hierro.

"I guess Kagome made it back all right," he said.

Kagome. Miroku bristled at the informality but took care not to show his annoyance. "Mr. Higarashi arrived with his brother a few hours ago," he said.

The tracker laughed. "You keep your secret from the doc, but don't bother with me. I already know the lady pretty well."

Miroku clenched his fists on Hierro's reins. "I doubt that, Mr. Huan Lang."

"Kagome talked about me."

"She mentioned hiring a tracker in Tombstone."

Huan Lang clucked his tongue. "Don't hardly do justice to what we've been through together. And who're you?"

"Miroku Kazzana, range boss of Calico Creek."

Huan Lang's pale eyes glittered with the last of the day's light. "The man who disappeared looking for Souta. Kagome said you'd probably be here."

Miroku held his emotion in check. Neither Kagome nor Huan Lang cold know anything of what was in his heart unless he lat them see.

"I was looking in the Valley. Miss Higarashi found her brother in the mountains."

"Good thing I was in Tombstone to help out," Huan Lang said, "or Mr. Higarashi would be panther meat about now."

"I'm sure you lent your assistance with no thought of gain for yourself, Mr. Huan Lang."

Kouga laughed. "I reckon you're the one who runs off any varmints that trouble the Higarashis."

"I have that privilege."

"And I look to you like one of them varmints." Huan Lang made no display or open threat, but Miroku knew a man of his nature would pack at least one gun and probably a selection of knives for good measure.

"Miss Higarashi hired you. I don't usually question her judgment."

"That's right loyal of you, Kazzana."

"Are you of the opinion that Miss Higarashi doesn't deserve loyalty, Mr. Huan Lang?"

The tracker scowled. "Kagome asked me to deliver the doc to her door, and that's just what I'm doing."

"Then your services are no longer needed. You'll be paid what you're owed and put up for the night. I advise you not to bother Lady Kagome. Am I clear, Mr. Huan Lang?"

"I understand Kagome's fancy talk, and I understand yours."

"Then we have no quarrel. I'll see you at the bunkhouse."

He fell back to join Suikotsu, who was nearly falling off his horse. Miroku guided the doctor toward the lanterns Sango had put around the yard to light travelers' way.

InuYasha and Sesshomaru had come in from the range; they looked after the horses, while Kohaku proudly carried the doctor's saddlebags into the house.

Sango took the doctor in custody a moment later.

Kouga was almost to the door before Miroku could stop him. Miroku blocked the threshold and folded his arms across his chest. "You've got no business in the house," he said. "You'll bunk and eat with me and the men."

The tracker stood an inch shorter than Miroku, but his stare was as potent as a punch to the gut. "I don't take orders from you," he said.

"You take them or get on your horse and ride out now."

"No, Miroku. It's all right."

Kagome brushed past him from the doorway. She'd kept on her hat and dusty clothes so she could introduce herself to Suikotsu as Souta's brother, but it was obvious to Miroku that she was desperately in need of rest.

"Mr. Wolf," she said, stepping between the two men, "thank you for your quick return with the doctor."

Wolf nodded brusquely. "You all right?"

"I'm fine. The doctor…he needs some time to examine Souta. There's not much more any of us can do but wait."

"I was telling him that he can get his grub with the men tonight," Miroku said. "I'll pay him off, Lady Kagome. No need for you to trouble yourself."

"It's no trouble Miroku. We'll all eat in the bunkhouse so that Souta can rest undisturbed." She turned to Wolf. "Is there anything else you need, Mr. Wolf?"

Miroku looked with bemusement from Kagome to the tracker. Wolf had scarcely moved since Kagome had appeared, but his hard face bore the addled expression of an outlaw bronc who'd been saddled and ridden around the corral before he could even think of putting up a fight.

Kagome haddelt that to him with a few quiet words.

"I can see you're done in," Wolf said after a long hesitation. He fiddled with the brim of his hat and pulled it low over his brow. "I'll go see to Diablo."

"I'll ask Kohaku to give him and the doctor's horse an extra ration of oats. Good night." She smiled at Wolf and returned to the house. Huan Lang didn't try to follow.

"Do you think you can find your way to the barn?" Miroku asked pointedly.

"I found Kagome's brother," Wolf said. "Don't _you _ever get yourself lost, Kazzana."

"I won't, Mr. Huan Lang." Miroku waited until Wolf turned on his boot heel and strode toward the barn. Sango came to stand beside Miroku, following his stare into the darkness.

"He did what he promised," she said.

"That may be. But he's no good, Sango. When I was in the army…we hunted men like him. I know a killer when I see one."

"Then why didn't he hurt Kagome when he had the chance?"

_Hurt. _Kagome had been "hurt" more than once, and no one had less reason to forgive than she did.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't know why Kagome trusted him in the first place. But the man is not in this for a few dollars. He's got too much interest in Lady Kagome. Or something at Calico Creek."

Sango rested her cheek against Miroku's arm, and his heart gave a painful thump. "You don't have enough faith, Miroku. There's good in every man. And there's a reason this one was sent to Miss Kagome."

Miroku covered her hand with his. He couldn't deny Sango the comfort of her faith. He, too, believed in certain supernatural powers that could neither be seen nor touched. "I'll be watching him until he leaves Calico Creek."

"Don't you ever stop being a soldier?"

"A man doesn't have to be a soldier to protect the folk he cares about."

They were silent for a time. Coyotes yipped in the hills, and voices whispered in the back of the house.

"Come and help me get supper to the bunkhouse," Sango said at last. "I've got to make Miss Kagome take some food and get a good rest tonight, or she'll fall apart."

"She won't leave Souta's side."

"I'll sit up with Mr. Souta so she can sleep,"

Miroku bowed to Sango's superior will and helped her fill several plates with chicken and biscuits, a special meal she hoped would tempt Kagome to eat before the long night was over.

He spoke to Sesshomaru and InuYasha about what had happened, left them to their meals and took a lantern to the barn to look in on Wolf.

The tracker had laid out his bedroll in the box stall with his stallion, apparently unconcerned that the high-strung animal might trample him in his sleep.

His eyes reflected red in the lantern light like those of a night-hunting animal.

"Are you comfortable, Mr. Huan Lang?" Miroku asked.

"Very comfortable." He stretched, cracking the joints of his knuckles. "Sweet dreams, Mr. Foreman."

He knew as well as Miroku that no one at Calico Creek was likely to get much sleep. And that Miroku's nights would be troubled for a long time to come.

(Page Break)

Kouga could have gone to Kagome any time he chose. No one would hear him slip in the door to the main house or crawl through a window—no, not even Miroku Kazzana, with his soldier's air and suspicious eyes.

But he had on reason to see her until morning. This peculiar need was like a small cholla spine lodged in the palm of his hand, barely more then annoying for one used to frequent discomfort.

Yet he'd been gone only two days, and during those two days Kagome had been a constant presence in his thoughts no matter how much he tried to be rid of her.

"Lady Kagome." The way the man spoke of her, a stranger might think she was some kind of princess from the otherside of the world instead of a plainspoken, relatively sensible female who wore men's britches and a battered slouch hat.

"Ha," Kouga mutterd, and rolled a cigarette. He didn't smoke them anymore, but he still liked to roll them. The habit was hard to break, and it gave his fingers something to do.

The taste of tobacco hadn't set well with him ever since he started Crossing and running as a wolf.

Diablo dropped his head and nibbled at Kouga's hair. Kouga gently pushed the big head away. "You're a little frisky after such a long ride," Kouga said. "You smell mare, do you?"

Diablo blew sharply through his nose.

"I knew I should have had you gelded," Kouga said. Diablo shook his head. "You think I should be, too? It don't work that way, pard." He kicked off his boots and lay back on his bedroll, the unlit cigarette clenched between his teeth.

"The only cure I need is for Souta to wake up and talk about the treas—"

The faint crunch of feet on gravel silenced him instantly, and he sat up with his hand on his gun before he recognized the tread.

He let go of the ivory grip and stood up to meet her.

Kagome slowly entered the barn, as if she were afraid she might be intruding. Kouga struck a match and held it near his face.

"I'm awake," he said.

He blew out the match, leaving the barn in darkness. Kouga didn't need the extra light. He saw her well enough, and what he saw made his voice rough with surprise.

"What else did Miroku tell you?" he asked.

Kagome hopped up on the partition of the stall and sat there, perfectly balance. "He told me he didn't trust you…but I think you know that already."

"He's quick to decide what he doesn't like."

"So am I. But when it comes to Calico Creek, I follow my own judgment."

Kouga stared at her bare feet braced on the partition—strong feet, not in the least delicate but strangely fascinating. She still wore britches, but a woman's unbound breasts pushed against the cloth of her plain farmer's shirt.

And she'd done something to her hair. He'd seen it loose before, as she wore it now, yet he hadn't imagined it could look so clean and shining, like a field of ripe black berries rippling in the wind.

And her face…He didn't know what she'd changed, but no man in his right mind would ever mistake her for a boy.

Kouga bit down so hard on the cigarette that he got a mouthful of tobacco. He spat it out and jammed a piece of straw in his mouth instead. "How's your brother?"

"The doctor examined him and put on fresh bandages, but there wasn't much more he could do. Souta…may or may not recover. He needs rest and quiet…and time."

Her matter-of-fact tone was meant to hide the grief she must be feeling, just as Kouga disguised his own disappointment. Disappointment, hell—this was disaster, if the doc's worst prediction was right.

"I'm sorry," he said, amazed at how sincere the words sounded in the mouth of a man who'd seldom had occasion to use them.

"I believe you are."

He knelt and pretended to examine Diablo's near foreleg. "You'll be running the ranch yourself now," he said. "You'll be short-handed."

"Miroku's a very good range boss—not that we've ever had enough men to need one. We're not a big outfit. Not yet." Kagome brushed her hair out of her face with a casually graceful gesture that pushed Kouga's heart into his throat.

"What are your plans after this, Kouga? Where are you going? To Ayame?"

The mention of the name hit Kouga like a clenched fist. He hadn't forgotten about Ayame. Not for a second. But she seemed very far away in that little town in Kuzo, not even knowing he would be coming for her.

_When? When are you finally going to do it?_

He'd learned long ago that it was better to tell part of the truth than a pack full of lies. "I ain't exactly a rich man," he said. "I planned on going to Ayame when I had a little more money saved up, so we could get married."

"That's quite understandable. Where is she?"

"She doesn't live to far from here."

Kouga watched Kagome out of the corner of his eye, engrossed by the way she bit her lower lip. He remembered the feel of those lips under his.

He's kissed Ayame only twice, and he had difficulty picturing those distant moments in his mind.

Kissing Kagome was supposed to be a cure, and end to the temptation of straying from his dream. Kagome must have seen if for what it was. Of course she had.

"I have a proposal for you, Kouga," she said.

Kouga snapped the straw in two. "And what would that be?"

"I'd like you to stay here and work for me. Considering the trouble we had with rustlers last winter, I can use a man to take Souta's place until he's well again. I can't promise you good pay—you could get better almost anywhere else—"

"This time of year?" Kouga leaned against the opposite wall of the stall and chose a fresh bit of straw. "Even the big spreads lack off men in summer."

"That may be, but we scrape by at the best of times. Miroku's here by choice. So is Sango. Sesshomaru lost his wife two years ago, and Sango looks after her little brother. InuYasha has a hard temper that makes it more difficult for him to find work where the owners and foreman can afford to be more fussy about who they hire."

"And you can't."

"I've been very lucky."

"What makes you think an army tracker would make a tolerable cowhand?"

"You're good with horses. My guess is that you've worked cattle in you day, and done just about everything else that's requited on a small place like ours."

"Just about everything else" was right. He's even tried a few excruciating stretched of legitimate labor, but blacksmithing and bronc-busting hadn't panned out when he'd needed real money to begin a straight life with Ayame.

The kind of cattle working Kouga knew best wouldn't meet with Kagome's approval.

But here she was, offering him a way to stay near Souta and keep looking for the thief who'd taken the map.

If her brother hadn't recovered by the end of the summer, he probably never would. A steady job at Calico Creek would give Kouga food and shelter and time to think through what he would do if the map…or, worse case, the treasure…was gone for good.

He'd seen enough of Calico Creek to know that Kagome wasn't being modest about either its size or prosperity.

The land itself was promising, with a spring and a creek that flowed the better part of the year, but she couldn't lay legal claim to any of it until this part of Arizona was officially surveyed.

The main adobe hose was serviceable, as were the barn and the few other outbuildings, but they weren't the work of someone with lofty ambitions for wealth and status.

Kagome had admitted she'd lost cattle to rustlers, and she probably hadn't owned many to begin with.

Those very disadvantages made her stubborn courage all the more remarkable. She knew what she had and planned to make the best of it, no matter the odds against her.

There was no doubt in Kouga's mind that she's always been the boss at Calico Creek.

_Moi fou._ He was crazy to seriously consider staying anywhere near a woman who interested him the way Kagome did.

No good telling himself that he could look at Kagome and not feel…not feel something that even Ayame, with all her purity and goodness…

Damnation. Kagome and Ayame weren't alike. Not anything alike. As long as he remembered that, he was safe. As long as he remembered that he had to earn Ayame the way a men earns his way into heaven.

If he began to feel trapped, the wolf gave him a way out.

"Kazzana won't like it," he said.

"He'll accept my decision." Kagome slid down from the partition. "Do you want the job?"

"I'll take it, at least through the summer."

She hesitated, then offered her hand. He took it, feeling her worked hands that were still soft with steadfast strength of her grip.

"There's only one other thing," she said, holding his gaze as firmly as his hand. "Everyone at Calico Creek keeps my secret away from the ranch or around outsiders like the doctor. To them, I'm Hojo, Souta's brother, here I am Kagome. That's the way I started out here, and how I intend to continue."

He release her hand, flexing his fingers to relieve the tingle in them. "Call yourself whatever you choose. I've got no reason to care one way or another."

"I didn't think so." She smiled at him the same way she smiled at Miroku and Sango and probably at everyone who worked for her. "I'll inform Miroku. Tomorrow night you can sleep in a bunk."

Kouga nodded and stepped back out of range of her scent and her touch. "Are you going to get some sleep now, boss?"

"Yes," she said quietly. "I think I will."

She walked out of the barn. Kouga leaned against Diablo and breathed in the familiar smell of horseflesh until the stallion's head drooped and Kouga gave himself up to the merciless reckoning of dreams.

_Princess of Thieves 15:_

**Kouga**: For your information it's called a kilt!

**Sora**: Oh, that's what they're calling them now!

**PaviElle**: Kouga, please understand…I met Sora when I was 12 after he left well…I met you and well…kinda got stuck, sevey?

**Kouga**: It doesn't matter! You're my woman!

**Sora**: You better think again you mangy wolf! I took her first

**Kouga**: Why I outta…!

**Lauren**: (sigh) Riku, I'm so happy we don't have this problem

**Riku**: Oh wait a minute, my princess. I heard from a very reliable source that you were seeing a lecherous monk while I was behind the doors.

**Lauren**: (gulp, laughs hysterically) haha! No of course not uh…PAVIELLE LETS RUN FOR IT!

(dash)

Still to be continued...

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	7. Dechirure

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha

A/N: I hope you like this one. I'm currently working on a new fanfic so updates for this one may come a lot slower. Enjoy!

I LOVE KINGDOM HEARTS! (and Sora)

_**DECHIRURE**_

_**(tears)**_

Doctor Suikotsu left Calico Creek early the next day. He offered no more hope for Souta than he had given when he arrived, but at least he admitted to Kagome that recovery was possible.

She paid Suikotsu out of her very limited stock of cash and devised a schedule so that either she or Sango remained with Souta at all times. He continued to lie quietly, sometimes opening his eyes without seeing, at other times moaning disjointed syllables that made no sense.

Sango made up a this gruel that he was able to eat much as a baby would, but Kagome worried that his health would fail even more quickly on such a diet.

The everyday work of running the ranch kept Kagome sane after she'd spent several hours at her brothers' bedside.

Miroku was well able to manage the spread without her help, but Kagome couldn't have borne day after day inside the house the way Sesshomaru and InuYasha as they branded stray and orphaned calves, doctored sickly cattle, and mucked out tanks and water holes.

Miroku had another task. He hadn't been pleased when Kagome had told him about Kouga, but it was his job to show a new hand the ropes. The two men had to accept each other sooner of later, and Kagome intended that it be sooner.

Kagome saw little of Kouga or Miroku for several days. On the third evening both of them appeared in time for supper and assumed their places without ceremony, Miroku in Souta's chair and Kouga in the foreman's seat, next to InuYasha.

Sesshomaru described a recent encounter with a cantankerous cow, fell silent when Kouga sat down at the table. InuYasha grabbed a biscuit and bit into it, risking Sango's wrath for eating before grace had been said.

Kohaku seated at his chair and stared with wide, fascinated eyes at the stranger. Sango behaved as if this were just another ordinary meal. She served up the frijoles, ham and potatoes, and took her chair at Kagome's other side.

Her eyes met those of every man and woman at the table, coming last to Kouga.

"We will pray," she said.

Heads bent and eyes closed, but Kouga stared at Kagome. She stared back. Sango said grace, perhaps a bit more loudly than usual. She had an unerring sense of detecting lost souls.

Kagome wasn't surprised that Kouga didn't pray. She also wasn't surprised to find that she'd missed him over the past few days, even his sarcasm and double-edged remarks.

The night he'd come with the doctor, she'd felt herself driven to speak with him in the barn, and for no good reason except her own loneliness. She'd taken strange comfort from his stolid inability or unwillingness to offer pretty words meant to ease her grief. When he did speak, he meant what he said.

Here, among the spare comforts of her own home, he looked just as out of place as he had at the Hanas'. His eyes seemed more vivid, his features sharper and somehow feral in the lamplight.

She couldn't begin to read what lay behind his stare or guess what he saw in hers.

But she knew she hadn't made a mistake in offering the job. Miroku had brought him to the table; that was as close a sign of acceptance as Kouga was ever likely to get from the former soldier. At least they hadn't come to blows…

"Amen," Sango said.

"Amen," the others echoed. Sango have Kagome a reproachful glance. Miroku scooped up a spoonful of frijoles.

Kagome cleared her throat. "You have all noticed by now that we have a new hand at Calico Creek." She smiled, trying to ease the unmistakable air of discomfort that hung so thick in the room.

"Of course we've never been much for formality here, so we won't start now. I would like you to meet Kouga Huan Lang. He'll be working with us for the summer, until Souta in son his feet again."

Heavy silence followed her last remark. She folded her hands on the table and took a deep breath.

"It may seem as if everything has changed overnight. No one could have…expected my brother to get lost and hurt, but if it weren't for Mr. Huan Lang, I never would have found him. I won't give up hope, and I ask you all to do your best to keep things going the way they always have. It's what Souta would want."

Sesshomaru looked up from his plate. "You're right, Lady Kagome. We must go on as before." He nodded to Kouga. "_Bonsoir, _Mr. Huan Lang. I am Sesshomaru Tenjo, and this is my brother, InuYasha.

InuYasha shifted nervously in his chair. "Howdy," said the cowman said to Kouga, offering his hand. Kouga met his gaze, and InuYasha withdrew his hand, rubbing his palm on the side of his pants.

Kagome frowned at Kouga. "InuYasha had been in the Territory longer than almost anyone. He's fought the Apaches and lived to talk about it."

InuYasha ducked his head. "Who wouldn't."

Kouga leaned back in his chair until it creaked dangerously and balanced on two legs. "Tenjo," he said thoughtfully. "I've heard of you." InuYasha's young eyes peered up at Kouga, bright with hope. He returned to his food with gusto.

"You've met Sango," Kagome said. "She runs the house and manages our food stores. Don't cross her unless you want a little too much chili in your frijoles."

Kouga gave a startling smile, all white teeth and an edge of dark humor. "I like my chuck hot."

"I imagine Sango could lay her hands on a little rat bait if she set her mind to it," Miroku said.

InuYasha choked on his biscuit. Sango clapped a hand over her mouth, and Sesshomaru sighed. Kohaku tried to hold his laughter. Kouga continued to smile.

"You know a rat 'round here needs killing?" he asked Miroku.

Miroku smiled back at him. "Even rats can be useful from time to time."

Kouga's chair crashed back to all four legs. "Miroku and me had a nice tour of your spread, Miss. Kagome," he said. "He's a mighty fine range boss, Mr. Kazzana is."

"And you're satisfied with Mr. Wolf's work?" Kagome asked Miroku.

She knew Miroku well enough to expect him to tell the truth, even if it embarrassed both her and Kouga.

Miroku took time about answering. He slathered butter on a biscuit and ate it almost daintily.

"He'll do," he said at last. "Until Mr. Higarashi is well again."

"I'm glad to hear it." Kagome took a slice of ham. She would have to speak to Sango about such lavish expenditures for everyday meals, even though she knew her friend was doing it for her sake.

God knew she hadn't had much of an appetite. "Since we are speaking or rats, has there been any sign of the rustlers since I left for Tombstone?"

"None," Miroku said. "They must figure we don't have much left worth stealing."

"We have a new crop of calves," InuYasha said. "Once they're weaned…"

"They won't succeed again," Miroku said grimly. "We'll be ready for them."

"You have a strategy in mind?" InuYasha asked. He turned to Kouga. "Miroku fought with the Buffalo Soldiers, the Tenth Cavalry. I understand that you also served in the army, Mr. Huan Lang."

Kouga shrugged. Miroku pinned InuYasha with an eloquent stare. He hated to talk about his past with the army. Kagome knew only scraps of his history.

Like her, he couldn't entirely escape the influence of his former profession. Discipline and skill were evidence of his training, just as his education upbringing showed in his speech and manner.

"I'm more interested in Mr. Huan Lang's suggestions on how to deal with cattle thieves," Miroku said.

Kouga regarded the other man through half-lidded eyes. "I didn't know you were interested in any opinion of mine."

"I gather you two didn't do much talking in the last few days," Kagome said dryly. "Do you have a suggestion, Kouga?"

A hunter's spark lit his eyes. "Do you know who they are? I've heard the name Naraku in this part of the Territory."

"We never got a good look at 'em," InuYasha offered. "But Naraku is said to be among the worst of all the cowboys in the Valley."

"I like to know the name of my enemy." Kouga said. He held Kagome's gaze. "You don't need to worry about those cowboys, Miss Kagome. They won't bother you again."

Miroku leaned over the table. "That's pretty big talk, Wolf. It makes me wonder if you know these kinds of men a littler better than you've let on."

Kagome stood up. All the men but Kouga jumped to their feet out of habitual courtesy.

"Please sit down," she said firmly. "Miroku, I'd prefer that you don't make accusations without proof. I'm satisfied as to Mr. Wolf's background and abilities. At times like these, we can't afford to turn against each other."

Miroku sat down, but his muscles were taut with strain. "If I owe you an apology, Mr. Huan Lang, you have it."

"If I ever need one," Kouga said, "I'll take it."

Kagome banged her hand on the table. "_Gentlemen," _she said, deliberately implying that they didn't deserve the name.

"I think that's enough of this discussion for tonight. Kouga, are you set up in the bunkhouse?"

Kouga nodded, but Kagome could see that his thoughts were elsewhere. Sango got up to clear the dishes, effectively ending the meal.

InuYasha walk away and washed up before bed, and Sesshomaru left so quietly that no one seemed to notice he was gone.

Miroku spoke briefly to Sango and walked out the front door.

Kouga scraped back his chair and rose with an extravagant stretch. He stalked around the table, intercepting Sango with her armful of dirty dishes.

"Mighty good cooking," he said, taking the plates from her hands. He winked at Kagome. "Better than Mrs. Hana's, I'd say."

Sango stared at him, openmouthed, and took a step back. "Why…thank you, Mr. Wolf."

He set the plates down beside the washbasin.

Somehow he insinuated himself nest to Kagome without seeming to have moved across the room. He drew her out the door and onto the porch.

A breeze had risen to drive away the day's hear, and Kagome turned her face into the wind's caress.

Kouga pulled a rolled cigarette from his waistcoat pocket and contemplated it as if it were a rival to be defeated. "I meant what I said in there," he said.

"About the rustlers? I never doubted it."

He cast her a sideways glance. "No questions? No suspicions?"

She leaned against the house's cool adobe wall. "Miroku may be right. I'm not ignorant, Kouga. I never dismissed the possibility that you've walked on both sides of the law."

Kouga dropped the cigarette and crushed it under his boot. "Some men might take offense at the implication."

"Do you?"

"Do I look angry?"

She wasn't about to admit how difficult it was to read the expressions on his face. "Then Miroku has reasons for his concerns."

"You still want me here?"

"Everyone deserves a chance to make a new life. A better life." She met his eyes. "Isn't that what you want, Kouga?"

Slowly he lifted his hand, fingers spread. Kagome forgot to breathe. She barely felt the brush of Kouga's fingers on her cheek

"I thought I did," he said. "It's easier to go the other way."

"It's always easier not to change."

He let his hand fall." Maybe it's impossible."

"Alone, yes. You aren't alone at Calico Creek."

His eyes did something remarkable then, permitting her a glimpse of vulnerability, even fear. She saw a boy who had lost as much as she had but had turned in anger against the loss, crushing its power and even his memory of it.

But the memories were not dead. She had aroused them again. In a moment the child behind his eyes would become a man, enraged that his careful shields had been breached by a mere woman.

She turned away. "I'm grateful for what you said to InuYasha and Sango. As for Miroku…"

The porch stair creaked. Kouga was gone, lost in the dark. A minute later Miroku joined her.

"You still intend to keep him on?" he asked.

"You gave your approval," she said. "I assumed you meant it."

Miroku gripped the porch railing. "He's a good worker, fast and strong. He knows cattle and horses. In fact, I'd say he had an almost uncanny way with them. But I don't like him, and I never will."

"You truly think he's a rustler?"

"I don't know. He wouldn't talk about his past, or about much of anything, really. He just did what I told him."

"At least he's not like a lot of the men in Texas."

"The ones who wouldn't take orders from a poor man?" Miroku smiled. "They're not the most dangerous. Not by half."

"I'm willing to take the risk, Miroku."

He looked down at her. "This is about more than just finding a replacement for Souta, isn't it?"

"He helped me save Souta's life."

"It's more than that, too." Miroku shook his head. "You and I—we're friends, Kagome. Maybe it's strange to the world. But we made a haven here that's safe for all of us…to be what we are."

She touched his arm. "I know, Miroku. That's why we can't turn away someone who may need a place just like this."

"Pity for a man like Kouga?"

"If it ever becomes more than that, I think you'll know."

She gave him a little push toward the door. "Go inside, Sango's waiting."

He went, reluctantly and with several backward glances. Kagome lingered on the porch.

She heard Sesshomaru's voice, singing some French lullaby, drifting from his little cabin behind the main house. Dishes clattered in the kitchen, while Miroku and Sango shared their own secret language.

Kagome envied them. At first glance they seemed to have little in common. Miroku had been born in a prosperous family in the North and had sought for the Union during the war; when his father had lost his fortune, he'd continued on with the army to the western frontier.

Sango had been born into poverty. She took great comfort in her faith, while Miroku professed to have none.

But each of them knew about suffering and facing the ignorant judgment of others. Miroku had been treated badly in Texas after he left the army.

Sango had found work as a maid in a brothel, earning a tiny fraction of what the soiled doves made by selling their bodies. Once she'd been given her life, she'd never let it go.

Miroku and Sango might have left Texas and made lives for themselves apart from the memories that came with Souta and Kagome Higarashi. Kagome never asked them why they'd chosen what they had.

They were family, and Miroku had become more a brother to her than Souta had been.

What did that make Kouga?

She wandered off the porch and walked aimlessly around the homestead. What did she feel for Kouga Huan Lang?

Certainly not pity. He wasn't a man to be pities by anyone. If he was lonely, he'd chosen his own loneliness.

Nevertheless, she likes him—his skill, his gruff respect for her as a person, his unexpected and oddly times spells of compassion and even playfulness. He wielded scorn as a weapon, but he didn't judge her for dressing and living as she did.

She found him attractive as a normal woman might find a well favored man.

_Enfer, _that shouldn't even be possible. She hadn't found a man attractive since she'd believed herself in love at the tender age of fourteen. "Mademoiselle _Ange_" felt no attraction to any man.

Kagome wasn't sure even sure of what such feelings consisted. Her marriage hadn't been built of love or passion, but convenience; she'd simply gone from one type of bondage to another.

She had grown to loathe the touch of men's bodies or even the thought of submitting in that way again.

She had few illusions about Kouga. Maybe she felt an attraction because he had declared himself unattainable, bound to another woman.

Kagome sat on a stump near the chicken coop and looked up at the stars. Coyotes wailed in the distance, but their cry was cut of by the deeper howling of wolves, much nearer.

Wolves could decimate what remained of Calico Creek's herd, but until a week ago they'd stayed in the northern Chiricahuas. Kagome dreaded the prospect of laying traps. Captivity of any kind turned her stomach. But if the very survival of Calico Creek was at stake…

She'd told Kouga that she didn't blame anything for trying to stay alive, and it was true.

She got up and strode back into the house. Sango had finished her cleaning and was sitting with Souta in his room. Kagome paused in the doorway.

"You should have reminded me, Sango. It's my turn now."

"I don't mind, Miss Kagome," Sango said, putting down her knitting. "I thought you might like to spend a little time with Miroku."

"Not when he's in this kind of mood."

"Over Kouga Huan Lang."

Sango sighed. "I don't rightly know what to think of that one."

"Neither do I. You go to bed, Sango. I'll stay up for a while."

"Call me when you need me." Sango took her knitting to her room down the hall and closed her door. Kagome took the warm seat beside the bed.

"I don't know if you can hear me, Souta," she said. "I can hardly recognize you anymore." She pulled the chair closer and smoothed her brother's hair. His eyelids twitched, but no expression showed on his face.

"What would have you said about Kouga? You were always quick to trust people—at least the wrong the people." She smiled sadly. "Why did you go to the mountains? Were you so afraid of facing me after you lost the money? Did I expect too much of you, _mon cher?"_

_Of course you did, _she told herself. _You wanted thing to be different here. You wanted to make a while new beginning. But Souta's heart never seemed to be in the ranch itself. There was something else calling him, and you weren't interested in his dreams…_

"Are you lying here because of me, Souta?"

He didn't answer. She wouldn't have dared to ask him if he could. He'd given her a home when Kurama died, even though he knew what she'd been. When that home proved less than ideal, he'd been willing to try to change.

Her faults were far more damning than his weakness.

She leaned over the bed and touched her forehead to his. "We will survive this, Souta. You have to keep fighting. Promise me you'll keep fighting."

Her tears splashed his cheek, and she wiped them away with her thumbs. No one had seen her weep since the terrible night of her "initiation" in New Orleans, and she'd sworn no one ever would again.

_If you die, I'll have to break my oath. Live, Souta. Live for both of us._

Kouga heard Kagome weeping, though the sound was so soft that human ears couldn't have detected it. He smelled her tears through the thick window glass of Souta's room.

She wept for _him, _a milksop who didn't deserve her grief, and Kouga hated Souta for turning her into another ordinary woman.

He strode away from the house, listening for the howling of wolves in the hills. His thoughts ran round and round in circles, like a dog chasing its tail. He had lied to himself when he called Kagome ordinary.

He'd lied because he'd given away too much tonight, and it was more comfortable to blame her than his own stupidity.

She'd asked him if he wanted a new life. A better life. For a moment, there on the porch, he'd completely forgotten Ayame. Kagome was all he saw, all he could imagine. He touched her.

And with that touch he'd betrayed the only woman who could make it possible for him to change, to have that new life.

One touch and he knew how it would be to lie with Kagome Higarashi.

He didn't know if she was a virgin. She used a man's name, but that might be for protection and freedom, like the male disguise. She could be a widow, for all he knew. She was respectable, yes, but something—his wolf senses, perhaps—told him that she wasn't an innocent.

Ayame was. When he imagined a life with Ayame, he tried to picture them sharing a bed. He'd kissed her , out of anger more than passion, but those kisses gave him nothing to go no. He couldn't see himself holding her naked body in his arms, hearing her moans of pleasure as he took her. The image was almost obscene.

But with Kagome, nothing interfered with his illusions. He could envision every line and curve of her body under the plain masculine clothes. Just being near her affected him. He hadn't had a woman in months, because he wouldn't sully his dream rutting between the legs of cheap whores and light skirted barmaids.

_It's easier to go the other way, _he'd told Kagome. He always took the easy path, the road to hell. It would be simple now to leave Calico Creek, forget about the map, forget Ayame. Forget redemption.

Kagome had said he wasn't alone, but she was wrong.

Halfway to the bunkhouse, Kouga turned on his heel and went to the stable. Diablo had been turned out in the home pasture to graze and rest after carrying Kouga all over the ranch; an elderly, placid gelding occupied the stall, and the old fellow had no interest in a man who shucked his outer coverings, his them under the straw and ran naked into the night.

Kouga knew the wolves were near. He'd listened to their calls every night since his arrival at Calico Creek, and he was certain they were the same pack he and Kagome had heard in Hakurei Canyon.

He couldn't be sure that they'd followed him here. But no he needed them…needed their wildness, their freedom, their indifference to human joy and suffering.

He Crossed and let his nose lead him to the east, skimming over the hills and arroyos of the valley, and climbing into the forested uplands of the mountains. The wolves were silent now.

They knew he was coming.

Kouga smelled their fear and curiosity and challenge. Then the wind shifted, and so did the pack. They lead him higher into the mountains. The pack leader left his scent on rock and tree, mocking and threatening one who might dare to steal his place.

But even he grew weary. He brought his mates to rest in rocky hollow framed by tall pines and waited for Kouga, tail bristling and teeth bared for battle.

Kouga was more than ready for a fight. He was bigger than the gray male who faced him, bigger than any wolf who had ever run in the Territory.

But even if he'd been half the size, it would have made no difference. He'd lived through a hundred confrontations just as deadly.

In at least one way, wolves were like men: they bluffed. And if their enemy called their bluff and proved superior, they either backed down...or they died.

He advanced stiff-legged, staring the leader in his slanted yellow eyes. The gray bristled and snarled. Kouga focused all his will on the beast, testing the power that some _lupis_ were supposed to possess.

The pack leader lowered his head, ears pressed to the sides of his skull, and tucked his tail between his legs. Kouga felt the wolf's defeat as if it were his own, and it have him no satisfaction.

There was no fairness in such a contest, for Kouga had abilities these wolves did not, abilities he had hardly begun to discover.

He let instinct take hold, showing him how to use the fluid motions of his lupine body in a dance of recognition and acceptance, how to explain in the wolves' native tongue that he had not come to steal the leader's place.

They gathered about him, wagging tails and licking his muzzle, welcoming him as one of their own.

He was not, but he pretended. He ran as they ran. He hunted as they did, driving game to them so that they and their pups fed well that night. For a while he forgot why he had fled to the mountains.

But when the sun's creeping warmth tinged the air with the scent of a new morning, he remembered his purpose in Calico Creek and decided to test his abilities once more. He made the wolves understand what he sought.

The pack leader acknowledged Kouga's request. The wolves would find it easy enough to watch for human intruders in the vicinity of Hakurei Canyon.

If the map thief spent any time in the mountains, they would report it. But they were not like the cattle and horses Kouga controlled with little more than a thought. He had no desire to force the wolves' obedience, or determine eth limits of his power.

A young subordinate male bounces from the pack, squirmed like a pup at Kouga's feet and set off for the north. Kouga returned to Calico Creek. He dressed and slipped into the bunkhouse with no one the wiser, rising with the other hands at dawn.

From that night on, Kouga's life took on a simple rhythm, divided between two very different worlds.

Each morning he rode out on the range to do a cowhand's work, sometimes with one of the other men, often alone.

He never rode with Kagome, and she didn't seek his company. He ate at the supper table every evening, learning how to make conversation that never touched on his past or his innermost thoughts.

And at night he ran with the wolves. There were times when he was tempted to remain with them beyond the sunrise, for he sensed that if he chose such a path, his humanity would gradually fade and leave him without memory of the life he had known as a man.

The temptation came and went, but it never entirely left him.

Without his dream, he might have surrendered. He made a ritual of remembering, calling Ayame's image into his mind and carrying it with him like a talisman.

But all to often emerald eyes and flaming hair would turn to honey and raven locks, gentle innocence to tough practicality, and he was lost again.

He wasn't a praying man. He didn't ask for help from God in heaven. But every night he howled to the stars, seeking a peace he hadn't earned.

_Princess of Thieves 15:_ The end! NO I'm completely joking there's still a long way to go! I hope you like it. There was a little bit of Kouga's wolf-ness like some of you wonderful reviewers wanted, I hope it's close to it. Review please! Thank you! .


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